Food printing additive layering substrate structure ingestible material preparation system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10239256-B2
Application number	US-201514750950-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 25, 2015
Priority date	Jun 12, 2012
Publication date	Mar 26, 2019
Grant date	Mar 26, 2019

Abstract

A computationally implemented system and method that is designed to, but is not limited to: electronically directing control of at least partial treatment of the one or more portions of the one or more ingestible substrate structures according to the treatment instructional information regarding the one or more subsequent ingestible substrate structure directed energy operations including directing energy to treat at least in part the one or more portions of the one or more ingestible substrate structures to form at least in part the one or more selected ingestible products subsequent to and based at least in part upon the electronically receiving the user status information and the electronically receiving the selection information. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
an ingestible product preparation machine including at least one injection treatment assembly configured for one or more liquid injection operations and including at least one food printing assembly;
at least one microprocessor coupled with the ingestible product preparation machine; and
at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium including at least one or more operations which, when executed by the at least one microprocessor, cause the at least one microprocessor to perform one or more operations including at least:
receiving at least some identifying data related to a user and one or more food selections selected from a menu of food items by the user;
directing one or more applied forces via one or more objects onto one or more ingestible substrate portions based at least in part on the one or more food selections;
printing, using the at least one food printing assembly, one or more layers of food material onto the one or more ingestible substrate portions based at least in part on the one or more food selections;
injecting, using the at least one injection treatment assembly, one or more liquid materials proximate to at least one of the one or more layers of food material or the one or more ingestible substrate portions based at least in part on at least one indication of one or more user preferences of the user for steaming obtained in association with the at least some identifying data; and
directing at least some heat to steam at least in part at least one of the one or more layers of food material or the one or more ingestible substrate portions using the one or more liquid materials.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein injecting, using the at least one injection treatment assembly, one or more liquid materials proximate to at least one of the one or more layers of food material or the one or more ingestible substrate portions based at least in part on at least one indication of one or more user preferences of the user for steaming obtained in association with the at least some identifying data comprises:
injecting, via one or more needle-based injections, the one or more liquid materials proximate to the at least one of the one or more layers of food material or the one or more ingestible substrate portions based at least in part on the at least one indication of the one or more user preferences of the user for steaming obtained in association with the at least some identifying data.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein injecting, using the at least one injection treatment assembly, one or more liquid materials proximate to at least one of the one or more layers of food material or the one or more ingestible substrate portions based at least in part on at least one indication of one or more user preferences of the user for steaming obtained in association with the at least some identifying data comprises:
injecting, via one or more jet-based injections, the one or more liquid materials proximate to the at least one of the one or more layers of food material or the one or more ingestible substrate portions based at least in part on the at least one indication of the one or more user preferences of the user for steaming obtained in association with the at least some identifying data.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein injecting, via one or more jet-based injections, the one or more liquid materials proximate to the at least one of the one or more layers of food material or the one or more ingestible substrate portions based at least in part on the at least one indication of the one or more user preferences of the user for steaming obtained in association with the at least some identifying data comprises:
controlling one or more pressurized air jets of the at least one injection treatment assembly of the ingestible product preparation machine to inject the one or more liquid materials proximate to the at least one of the one or more layers of food material or the one or more ingestible substrate portions based at least in part on the at least one indication of the one or more user preferences of the user for steaming obtained it association with the at least some identifying data.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein printing, using the at least one food printing assembly, one or more layers of food material onto the one or more ingestible substrate portions based at least in part on the one or more food selections comprises:
flowing one or more fluids through one or more ducts to treat at least in part one or more portions of the one or more ingestible substrate portions.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein flowing one or more fluids through one or more ducts to treat at least in part one or more portions of the one or more ingestible substrate portions comprises:
flowing the one or more fluids through the one or more ducts, the one or more ducts at least one of (a) having one or more dissolvable surfaces, (b) configured with one or more matrices, (c) having tubular duct arrangements, or (d) being internally located within the one or more ingestible substrate portions, to treat at least in part the one or more portions of the one or more ingestible substrate portions.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein directing one or more applied forces via one or more objects onto one or more ingestible substrate portions based at least in part on the one or more food selections comprises:
directing the one or more applied forces via the one or more objects to form the one or more ingestible substrate portions including at least one or more wafer portions based at least in part on the one or more food selections.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein injecting, using the at least one injection treatment assembly, one or more liquid materials proximate to at least one of the one or more layers of food material or the one or more ingestible substrate portions based at least in part on at least one indication of one or more user preferences of the user for steaming obtained in association with the at least some identifying data comprises:
injecting the one or more liquid materials through one or more externally positioned ducts adjacent to the at least one of the one or more layers of food material or the one or more ingestible substrate portions based at least in part on the at least one indication of the one or more user preferences of the user for steaming obtained in association with the at least some identifying data.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein directing at least some heat to steam at least in part at least one of the one or more layers of food material or the one or more ingestible substrate portions using the one or more liquid materials comprises:
directing at least some acoustic energy to heat, using the acoustic energy, the one or more liquid materials proximate to the at least one of the one or more layers of food material or the one or more ingestible substrate portions.

10. A system, comprising:
at least one processing device; and
at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium including at least one or more instructions that, when executed by the at least one processing device, cause the at least one processing device to perform one or more operations including at least:
receiving at least some identifying data related to a user and one or more food selections selected from a menu of food items by the user;
directing one or more applied forces via one or more objects onto one or more ingestible substrate portions based at least in part on the one or more food selections;
printing, using at least one food printing assembly of an ingestible product preparation machine coupled to the at least one processing device, one or more layers of food m

Assignees

• Elwha Llc

Inventors

• Holman Paul
• Levien Royce A
• Malamud Mark A
• Stephenson Neal
• Young Christopher Charles

Classifications

• B29C64/20 Primary

  Apparatus for additive manufacturing; Details thereof or accessories therefor · CPC title

• B33Y30/00

  Apparatus for additive manufacturing; Details thereof or accessories therefor · CPC title

• A23P20/00

  Coating of foodstuffs; Coatings therefor; Making laminated, multi-layered, stuffed or hollow foodstuffs · CPC title

• A23P2020/253

  Coating food items by printing onto them; Printing layers of food products · CPC title

• B33Y50/02

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title