A name for this task was: 100 pieces made by robot. Our final product is a lollipop. It's astonishing and interesting shape is fully derived from production process and material characteristics. Thanks to the short production time, it can be produced live on events or presentations. The product itself may serve as a fine dessert decoration or tasting treat.
A pike candy is made by Kawasaki robot equipped with specially designed tool. The robot dips wooden sticks into a hot caramel. While lifting up, it is forming candy strings, which are cooled and therefore hardened by fan blow. The shape and the angle of the caramel strings can be modified by position and the intensity of the blow, the shape of the main body, which forms around the stick can be regulated with depth and period of dipping. A loop program for the robot consists of three coordination points and three types of actions: vertical movements, turning the tool around the axis y performed by the joint #6 and waiting in a still position.
Work station and equipment can be divided into three parts. The first part is a 3D printed matrix mounted on the robot, which allows us to insert 10 sticks and fix them in a vertical position. The second part is a heating surface and a pot with hot caramel. The heating surface maintains stable temperature of the material thus ongoing production can be provided. The last tool is a fan. It is situated 50cm away from the pot and provides steady wind blow, That cools caramel after dipping the sticks and pulling them up. The described equipment configuration allows continuous production of lollipops of the same shape and quality.