List of products by brand Mayku

The aim of Mayku is to support creative minds all over the world and make it easier for them to start designing or even to found a start-up. With their Form Box, a thermoformer, they have succeeded in doing just that countless times. Of particular interest here is its use in the confectionery sector. With the thermoformer, many identical and personalised chocolate moulds can be produced right on the spot. Normally, ordering a personalised mould beforehand would mean an eternal back and forth of emails with the manufacturer, only the prototype would take a long time to arrive and small quantities for personal use are hardly ever produced anyway because of the high price and the effort.

With Mayku's thermoforming machine, however, it is quite easy to make the chocolate mould, and the easiest way is to use a 3D printer or a laser cutter. But how exactly does making your own chocolate mould work?

First you have to have an idea. What should the mould look like? Will it be bars, pralines or a chocolate bar? What pattern should it have? Be creative and then put your idea on paper. It's best to draw your design life-size. Make sure that you design it in such a way that neither the 3D printer or the laser cutter nor the thermoforming machine will have problems. Very narrow grooves or overhanging parts could be problematic.

Then model your sketch in a programme of your choice. For 3D printing, for example, Autodesk Fusion is suitable, for laser cutting Adobe Illustrator could be used, but you can also use another environment of your choice. When modelling, pay special attention to the depth and the walls. Think carefully about how deep you want the shape to be. Ideally, the walls should not be completely vertical. An angle of 5 to 10 degrees or a rounding of the mould makes it much easier to shape the finished chocolate! In addition, all corners should be slightly rounded, as these are difficult to fill and shape.

Then the modelled chocolate is printed or cut. If you don't have these tools at your disposal, you can alternatively mould a model yourself. Use a slightly heat-resistant, food-safe and mouldable material. For example, you can use clay to model your shape and cover it with a suitable glaze so that it is food-safe. Carving from wood is also possible. With these variants, however, slight irregularities can occur, which are then also visible in the chocolate, as the Mayku thermoformer can capture details the size of a grain of sand.

Once the template is ready, the next step is to make the actual mould. To do this, prepare the machine as described in the instructions, which includes connecting a good hoover. For such moulds, 1 mm thick foil is recommended, or 0.5 mm if necessary. The foil is heated in the appliance until it is soft and mouldable. Only then is the model placed on the surface to prevent it from melting.

Then the foil is quickly pulled down onto it, sucked down nicely around it by the hoover and hardens again in this shape. The foil can already be taken out, the model is removed from it and can easily be reused. The mould is ready for immediate use!

The foil is food-safe and can therefore be used directly for chocolate. The treatment for pouring is exactly the same as for other chocolate moulds, but the dishwasher should not be used. Of course, other liquids can also be moulded with it. Create great soaps, small plaster or concrete moulds, wax candles and much more.

Development of Mayku

The FormBox, the thermoforming device from Mayku, was the first product of the start-up. The two founders, Ben Redford and Alex Smilansky, worked in the same company in Wales and became friends through common interests. After Ben had seen on a business trip to China how difficult it would be there to follow one's own ideas and found a start-up, he came back to Wales with the desire to make it easier for people all over the world to create first prototypes, to live out their creativity and to realise ideas.

Ben then received initial funding for his idea at the Design Council and began working on it. Alex also soon left the company and became a co-founder of Mayku. After a long time of designing and tinkering, the first prototype was ready. Soon, using a cut potato as a model, a small cactus pot could be cast. fundraising for the production and sale of the first machines was launched in 2016. While only a few fundraisings reach their goal and not even one in twenty receives over $100,000, Mayku received over a thousand times the targeted amount with $600,000.

Large investors quickly joined in, the first FormBoxes were sold in 2018 and the company gained notoriety. Today, in addition to famous users such as the confectioner Paul A. Young, Nike and NASA, there are also thousands of other FormBox owners in over 70 countries. Become one of the creative tinkerers and turn your ideas into reality with the help of the thermoformer from Mayku!