The use of digital fabrication for the field of food processing has been widely used both for process efficiency, improving food quality, product innovation, and special needs. The use of 3D printers to print food is a challenge for the food industry in the future, one of which is the chocolate industry. In the chocolate 3D Printer machine, an essential process is the heating mechanism of the extruder. Proper heating will allow the chocolate to melt well and easily push out of the extruder to print. This study used an AC heater to heat the extruder and was combined with a fan towards the extruder to maintain temperature stability. The use of heating devices and cooling fans has been set to maintain the chocolate's minimum and maximum heat set-points to maintain the allowable temperature. The result of the research was a configuration of heating and cooling settings on the extruder 3D printer so that the heating process was stable at the allowable temperature. The best melting conditions have occurred at a temperature setting between 31 -32.5℃, resulting in an actual chocolate temperature between 33⁰ -47℃.

The food industry has taken advantage of additive manufacturing technology to create food from complex ingredients customized as needed. Research on 3d printing of food, especially chocolate, has been carried out, but it needs further development related to nutritional ingredients and the accuracy of printing results. This research was conducted to design an extruder nozzle from a 3D printer used to print chocolate. The extruder nozzle was manufactured using a stainless-steel tube with a diameter of 30 mm with a heater on the outside. The heating control method used a digital thermostat STC-1000, which controls the minimum and maximum operating temperature. The digital thermostat is connected to the heater and fan, which work alternately to get a chocolate temperature distribution that matches the printing specifications. The results showed that the control temperature in the extruder was between 32.2-32.3 °C and could produce an average chocolate printing temperature of 33.4 °C. This configuration produces a stable and continuous extrusion of chocolate on the chocolate 3d printer machine.