Barilla Launches 3D Printed Pasta Contest to Find Their Next Product

When you eat your favorite pasta, you likely don’t think about how those little macaronis, penne rigates or rigatonis were created. It’s actually a somewhat complicated process, especially when a large company is producing millions of these things a day. It takes a lot of planning and preparation. Many of our favorite pasta shapes have been in production for over a hundred years, meaning that they are perhaps just a bit dated.

One Italian food company, Barilla, in business since 1877, seems to agree. They have launched a competition, called ‘Print eat‘, seeking designs for a 3D printable new pasta shape. To do this, they are asking designers around the globe to create a 3D model of a new pasta shape which can be 3D printed out as a prototype. The company will then use this prototype to mass produce the winning design as their new pasta shape. There is one catch however, and that is the design must be something that traditional manufacturing techniques would not have been able to achieve prior to the advent of 3D printing/additive manufacturing.

Barilla, who is a global leader within the pasta market, has 30 production sites throughout the world, and exports their pasta to over 100 countries. Annually, they ship out over 17 million tons of food under brands such as Misko, Mulina Bianco, Vesta, and Wasa, so this certainly isn’t any run-of-the-mill contest. The winning three entries will not only receive a nice cash prize of €800 a piece, but the top entry will also likely have their pasta design used by Barilla, and eaten by millions of people around the globe.

Here are the basic guidelines to follow in the creation of your design, in order for it to qualify:

• Must be unique, not already industrialized or commercialized
• Must not exceed the following dimensions: 30mm x 30mm x 40mm (X, Y, Z)
• Must be printable in ABS and PLA
• Must respect the rights of industrial and intellectual property of third parties
• The participants must upload their designs on the portal Thingarage.com, by the deadline, and include at least one 3D model and one rendering
• Must be able to be printed by a FDM 3D printer
• Must be designed for implementation with a 3D printing technique, meaning it must be in one of the following file formats (.stl, .obj. .zpr, .3ds, .wrml, .dae). The design must be printable on a 3D printer with the following specs: Nozzle diameter, 0.8-1.5mm, printing resolution, 0.1mm.

The contest will run for 60 days, from August 20th to October 20th, and upon its completion, judges will choose the winning designs based on innovation, presentation, technical skills, briefness, and creativity. Those wishing to participate may download the toolkit here, as well as browse other designs which have been submitted. Note that you must register at Thingarage prior to gaining access to the full contest page.

Let us know if you decide to participate, and feel free to post any of your designs in the Print Eat 3D printed pasta forum thread on 3DPB.com.