Can You 3D Print the Perfect Spread
of Nutella on a Piece of Bread?
Chris Perez
ENGL21007 Writing for Engineers
Professor Slentz
January 3, 2025
Abstract
When spread on a piece of bread have you ever wondered if you could make the perfect spread of Nutella? When you try it, you will find it very difficult to do so but, with the help of 3D printers you certainly can. In the experiment done by James Orgill, host of Action Lab on Youtube attempts to 3D print Nutella on a piece of bread to see whether a 3D Printer designed to use foods to make foods, is precise enough to do a perfect spread. This was a result of wondering whether 3D printers could do the perfect spread. After many attempts it can be concluded that yes, 3D Printers can perfectly spread Nutella on a piece of bread.
Introduction
Nutella, a very popular spread to place on a piece of bread, can be spread using a 3D printer. When you think of an experiment you wouldn’t believe that trying to find out whether a 3D Printer is able to do the perfect spread, to be something informative when researched, but when you analyze what it brings is that 3D printers are getting much better and precise in replicating foods, which can help set data for the future. 3D printers specialized in food do exist, primarily due to the idea that we can use such technology in space travel and many other means.
Materials & Methods
Type of Printer Used
In this experiment, James uses a 3D printer from COCO Press due to them being known for making the most effective 3D Printer in handling chocolate (Orgill, 2024, 0:40). The 3D printer comes with chocolate rods that are heated when placed in the printer at a really low melting point so that it hardens quickly.
Materials:
● Slices of bread
● Nutella
● COCOPress3Dprinter
Steps:
- Load the Nutella inside the 3D Printer.
- Take a photo of the bread.
- You will need to turn the photo into a vector in which you will further turn it into an STL
format. - Make the object 3% smaller to make it fit on the bread.
- You may choose the thickness of Nutella you desire on the bread (Recommended to make it 4 layers thick).
- Now you will need to find out where it will start to print on the bread, first you will zero
it and place the bread on where it outlines the print. - Then re-zero to begin the process of doing the perfect spread with Nutella.
Results
After hours of experimenting with chocolate the result is that yes, 3D printers are precise enough to print the perfect spread on a bread, as well as much more. The success rate is guaranteed to work as long as the steps are done perfectly. This is certain due to 3D printers following the command made resulting in what you desire to be done on the loaf of bread.
Discussion
The STL format is a common format in 3D printing in which the 3D object has no color, attribute, or texture. This is an important step within the experiment due to how uniquely shaped each loaf of bread is (Orgill, 2024, 5:40). Although time consuming, doing this process ensures the perfect spread to be in the manner you desire it to be. Whether that be very thick, or in any unique design you wish it to be.
When it came to spreading Nutella on a piece of bread, whether it was a success or not, it truly shows the usefulness of 3D printing, especially with how advanced it gets over time. Upon doing the perfect spread, you may wonder what else you can do with chocolate, surprisingly you can do alot with it. When you try to put an image on the bread using Nutella you will see that it will easily be able to make an image on the bread as well as any type of letter easily. The only problem would be stability issues when trying to make things that aren’t decently two dimensional. This being apparent due to how soft chocolate is and having to melt it at a certain temperature to print the object. Although done with chocolate, this experiment can be done using other types of foods in which you will see completely different outcomes due to the consistency of the item used.
Conclusion
Can You 3D Print the Perfect Spread of Nutella on a Piece of Bread? Yes, you can spread Nutella using a 3D printer. Although at times it isn’t precise, you will frequently get a perfect spread of Nutella on your bread in the amount of thickness and size you wish. This experiment allows us to see that 3D printers are becoming much more efficient and precise in making 3D prints using foods. The data in the end helps give a better image of using 3D printers for more advanced tasks than just applying Nutella on bread.
References
The Action Lab. (2024, May 18). What if you put Nutella in a 3D printer? [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kS086wGkt8
