Optimization of piston type extrusion (PTE) techniques for 3D printed food

The piston type extrusion (PTE) method with the employ of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology for ejecting bio-materials and high viscosity material by using an extruder have been successfully optimized in terms of the head traveling speed and the piston pressure with food materials of various viscosities. Along with mathematical approach by using Hagen Poisoulle (HP) equation governing high viscosity flow, the study demonstrated that the material's qv (volumetric flow rate) has constant output at 3.6 × 10−8 m3/s with the material viscosity of 0.001-1000 Pa.S. and the PTE method has shown to be effective when the water content is higher than 33 wt %. When the high viscosity material is stacked more than 20 layers at an optimized height, the three-dimensional shape can be maintained between the head traveling speed of 1.5 × 10−2 and 2.0 × 10−2 m/s.