Hershey’s is bringing its chocolate-bar making expertise to a collaboration with 3-D Systems to a 3-D chocolate printer, as reported by CNN. So, the next chocolate Easter bunny you buy might have been 3-D printed, or you might be able to print it yourself.
It is unsure whether Hershey and 3-D Systems will be creating a consumer or business-grade 3-D chocolate printer.
In Toronto, Canada, several libraries will be outfitted with MakerBot Replicator-2 desktop 3-D printers as of Feb. 4, reported the Toronto Star. For a small fee, users will be able to make a customized object, an iPhone case, for example.
Last year, Defense Distributed made headlines when it produced a one shot 3-D printed handgun called the Liberator Pistol.
The pin was the only part of the gun that was not made using a 3-D printer. Instead, a nail was used as the pin, and for regulatory reasons they had to put a piece of metal in the gun so it would be detectable by a metal detector.
Large 3-D printers are also being explored, which would build things like customized houses at a fraction of the cost, time, and material.
3-D printers are set to go head-to-head with the manufacturing business, and could be another disruptive technology on the horizon.
