the army's going High Tech on rations....

[elandil]

My wife found me this article earlier, thought it was real interesting....

http://www.army.mil/article/130154/Chow ... ing_on_it/









(not as much MRE, but still ration based. If it's in the wrong area, feel free to move.)

[housil]

I can´t open the link. Can you please recheck it.

[elandil]

I can´t open the link. Can you please recheck it.

Hmm..It works on both my phone and work computer....Let me see if I can find another link for you to check out.



edit to add...

here's a PDF of the whole magazine the article came from. It also has info on 3D printed medical devices, you may find that interesting as well.

http://www.army.mil/e2/c/downloads/354586.pdf

[housil]

Thx for your efforts, but that´s doesn´t work (to me) either. Maybe "we" can´t open it from outside the USA?

[Ruleryak]

Housil - here's a link to the pdf that contains this article:

http://www.army.mil/e2/c/downloads/354586.pdf

It's on page 24 of the pdf (page 22 of the magazine). Since it's just text (no related photos) I'll quote it all here too:

NATICK, Mass. (July 18, 2014) -- Army researchers are investigating ways to incorporate 3-D printing technology into producing food for Soldiers.

The U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center's, or NSRDEC's, Lauren Oleksyk is a food technologist investigating 3-D applications for food processing and product development. She leads a research team within the Combat Feeding Directorate, referred to as CFD.

"The mission of CFD's Food Processing, Engineering and Technology team is to advance novel food technologies," Oleksyk said. "The technologies may or may not originate at NSRDEC, but we will advance them as needed to make them suitable for military field feeding needs. We will do what we can to make them suitable for both military and commercial applications."

On a recent visit to the nearby the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory, NSRDEC food technologist Mary Scerra met with experts to discuss the feasibility and applications of using 3-D printing to produce innovative military rations.

"It could reduce costs because it could eventually be used to print food on demand," Scerra said. "For example, you would like a sandwich, where I would like ravioli. You would print what you want and eliminate wasted food."

"Printing of food is definitely a burgeoning science," Oleksyk said. "It's currently being done with limited application. People are 3-D printing food. In the confectionery industry, they are printing candies and chocolates. Some companies are actually considering 3-D printing meat or meat alternatives based on plant products that contain the protein found in meat."

A printer is connected to software that allows a design to be built in layers. To print a candy bar, there are cartridges filled with ingredients that will be deposited layer upon layer. The printer switches the cartridges as needed as the layers build.

"This is being done already," Oleksyk said. "This is happening now."

"It is revolutionary to bring 3-D printing into the food engineering arena," Oleksyk said. "To see in just a couple of years how quickly it is advancing, I think it is just going to keep getting bigger and bigger in terms of its application potential."

Oleksyk believes her team is the first to investigate how 3-D printing of food could be used to meet Soldiers' needs. The technology could be applied to the battlefield for meals on demand, or for food manufacturing, where food could be 3-D printed and perhaps processed further to become shelf stable. Then, these foods could be included in rations.

"We have a three-year shelf-life requirement for the MRE [Meal Ready-to-Eat]," Oleksyk said. "We're interested in maybe printing food that is tailored to a Soldier's nutritional needs and then applying another novel process to render it shelf stable, if needed."

Oleksyk said they are looking at ultrasonic agglomeration, which produces compact, small snack-type items. Combining 3-D printing with this process could yield a nutrient-dense, shelf-stable product.

"Another potential application may be 3-D printing a pizza, baking it, packaging it and putting it in a ration," she said.

Currently, most 3-D printed foods consist of a paste that comes out of a printer and is formed into predetermined shapes. The shapes are eaten as is or cooked.

Army food technologists hope to further develop 3-D printing technologies to create nutrient-rich foods that can be consumed in a warfighter-specific environment, on or near the battlefield.

Nutritional requirements could be sent to a 3-D food printer so meals can be printed with the proper amount of vitamins and minerals, thus meeting the individual dietary needs of the Warfighter.

"If you are lacking in a nutrient, you could add that nutrient. If you were lacking protein, you could add meat to a pizza," Oleksyk said.

Scerra said individual needs could be addressed based on the operational environment.

"Say you were on a difficult mission and you expended different nutrients...a printer could print according to what your needs were at that time," Scerra said.

In the future, making something from scratch may have a completely different meaning.

"We are thinking as troops move forward, we could provide a process or a compact printer that would allow Soldiers to print food on demand using ingredients that are provided to them, or even that they could forage for," Oleksyk said. "This is looking far into the future."

Oleksyk, who was skeptical when she first heard that 3-D printers could be used to engineer food, now marvels at the possibilities.

"I've been here long enough to see some of these 'no ways' become a reality. Anything is possible," Oleksyk said.

-----

This article appears in the July/August issue of Army Technology Magazine, which focuses on 3-D printing. The magazine is available as an electronic download, or print publication. The magazine is an authorized, unofficial publication published under Army Regulation 360-1, for all members of the Department of Defense and the general public.

The Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to develop technology and engineering solutions for America's Soldiers.

RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command. AMC is the Army's premier provider of materiel readiness -- technology, acquisition support, materiel development, logistics power projection, and sustainment -- to the total force, across the spectrum of joint military operations. If a Soldier shoots it, drives it, flies it, wears it, eats it or communicates with it, AMC provides it.

[parafireboy]

Interesting! I'm still trying to wrap my head around "printing" foods that would actually taste like what you are printing, but I know there are some amazing scientific minds working on it, so it'll be neat to see what they cook up (pun intended)

[elandil]

Interesting! I'm still trying to wrap my head around "printing" foods that would actually taste like what you are printing, but I know there are some amazing scientific minds working on it, so it'll be neat to see what they cook up (pun intended)

Being the trekkie I am (don't hate... ) I could see this being the beginnings of the Food Replicators like we saw on the Enterprise...How cool would that be...

Heck, if my doc's telling me that advances in the fields of bionics could possibly have me seeing in both eyes again within a couple of decades.... hey, anythings possible.

[steve1989]

Oh my gosh this is amazing!

Thanks for sharing, Elandil!

Man, imagine having a printed out cheeseburger?

Printed bacon? Yeah, that's the ticket!


I am a tad behind the technological times, and hearing about something like this kinda blows my mind, I cannot believe we are coming this far in our lifetimes.

Imagine a field kitchen where it's just one of these 3D printers connected to like 7 or 8 tanks of various goop and it makes variations of things for the troops. One guy wants meatloaf - the next one wants spaghetti & meat sauce.

My mind is blown.

[Paul Buikema]

I would be the guy asking for unicorn steaks. lol

[housil]

Thx for the text!