A machine that uses 3D-printing technology to make pancakes has been developed.
The machine, called the PancakeBot, was developed in 2010 by Miguel Valenzuela, a breakfast food enthusiast and father from Norway, according to CNET.
Valenzuela built the pancake printer for his daughters, and was inspired by an article in Make magazine about a British designer who built a Pancake Stamping Machine out of Legos.
Valenzuela uses the Lego version of the PancakeBot as a demo in his presentations at schools, The Daily Dot reported.
He looks to use the presentations to inspire kids to get passionate about engineering and programming while creating food and having fun with it.
Valenzuela recently designed a new PancakeBot not built out of Legos, CNET reported. The new version is made from Arduino controllers, stepper motors and clear acrylic. Users can also program the machine to draw out different pancake designs, such as one of the Eiffel Tower.
"It uses two stepper motors and two belt drives to control the location of the batter as well as a batter dispenser unit for batter control," Vanenzuela said on his website.
The printer moves in only two dimensions along an X and Y axis, 3DPrint reported.
Unlike the ink on paper, the batter is not flat when it comes out of the extruder.
The improved PancakeBot was introduced recently at the Bay Area Maker Faire on May 17, CNET reported. While the printer is not for sale, instructions are available online for free for people interested in building their own PancakeBot.
Valenzuela also made a short stop-motion filmed called "Breakfast Gallop", which features pancakes, bacon, eggs and other food. In the video, he demonstrates how he used PancakeBot to draw 50 pancakes.
