Blog: Could 3D moulds offer cheap personalisation?

Katy Askew | 3 March 2015

3D design company Lehrmitt Design Studios is offering designs using 3D printing technologies that, it says, can add an "artist's touch" to assembly line chocolate. 

US-based Lehrmitt is targeting chocolate manufacturers large and small with the new technique, which involves using 3D-printed positives to make moulds that would otherwise have been designed by hand. 

"3D-printed chocolate designs look like they come from moulds that were painstakingly created by an artisan's hand," said owner Bob Lehrmitt. “We aren’t chocolate makers. What we do is design 3D-printed positives to make moulds so chocolate makers can create unlimited designs without having to carve the moulds by hand."

The technique could have a number of advantages – it is a cost-effective way of testing prototypes or lines with smaller production runs. Most significantly perhaps, it could enable confectioners to tap into growing expectations around personalisation in the sector.