Hasta La Gadget!

Chocolate. It may arguably be better than bacon. And today we have some important chocolate news. Hershey has just announced a partnership with 3DSystems to produce a 3D printer that prints in chocolate. Imagine chocolate shaped like anything, maybe even with a hollow caramel maze inside or something.

This isn’t 3DSystems first foray into printing candy – they showed off some amazing printers that could output both sugar and chocolate candy models at the recent 2014 CES:

We don’t know when they will have their new Willy Wonka device ready or how much it might cost, but the ChefJet will sell for less than $5,000 and the ChefJet will go for less than $10,000. No word on the Hershey’s version though. You guys just feel free to throw everything you have at this project. Humanity is counting on you.

I can’t wait for finely detailed chocolate Star Trek starships to start rolling out of this machine. The possibilities are endless.

[via Geekologie]

3D Systems has been on a bit of a shopping spree lately, snatching up companies left and right for its portfolio of print offerings. This latest deal is a bit sweeter than most, however. The company has picked up Sugar Lab, an LA-based startup that prints edible 3D objects in sugar. This isn’t quite the breakthrough in 3D-printed food we’ve been waiting for, but it certainly suggests that the company is taking a much more serious look at the space, as CEO Avi Reichental suggested during our interview at Expand back in March.

We reached out to the exec for comment on this latest acquisition, and he told us: “We are all foodies at heart, and for as long as we could remember, food provided a great canvass for our creativity. Adding third dimension to food creation is one of the most exciting initiatives I am involved with.” At the very least, it takes us a step closer to the Star Trek cake we’ve wanted since we were 10.

Filed under: Peripherals

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You might say that, in addition to the whole 3D printing thing, 3D Systems is in the acquisition game. The company’s spent much of the past few years snapping up smaller brands like there’s no tomorrow. And while a number of those buys have tended to fall a bit out of our purview, this latest is particularly interesting. The company announced this morning that it has picked up TeamPlatform, kind of the Google Docs of the 3D modeling world. The software offers up collaborative access to cloud-based tools for design, engineering and management companies. No word on how exactly the company will be absorbed, but 3D Systems noted plans to integrate it into Geomagic and Cubify, bringing the offering to pro and consumer users, respectively.

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When the company that helped invent 3D printing asks you if you want to be turned into a Star Trek statue, the only right answer is: “how soon?” Naturally, we immediately shot off a couple of selfies (front-facing and profile) and ticked off a couple of personal details: I wanted a phaser, naturally, and poor Tim got stuck in a red shirt, to help bring out the natural Riker in that beard of his. Sadly, we only had the option of the Original Series, in the lead up to launch, so you’ve got to use your imagination. As for the inscription on the base, Engadget Show producer Benjamin (who you can see after the break) asked for “Peace and Long Life,” in keeping with his pointy-eared Vulcan theme, and I went with “May the Force Be With You,” because, let’s face it, I was always more of a Star Wars guy anyway. Tim wanted the simple, but expressive “Khaaaaaaan!” but sadly didn’t make it in under the wire, so he’ll have to get creative with a Sharpie.

Once you send in two photos, fill out the specifics and pay the (admittedly somewhat steep) $70, someone at one of 3D Systems’ fulfillment centers will convert your image into a 3D model, import it into the company’s software and then print it out using the Projet 660pro. It’s a rebrand of the high-end device we saw at work at Laika’s Portland studios, printing out faces for the then-forthcoming stop-motion feature ParaNorman. The printer is capable of rendering objects in impressively high resolution, far more than you’ve been seeing on those consumer printers you’ve heard so much about.

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Source: Cubify

We didn’t find much in the way of news at the Inside 3D Printing Conference and Expo here in NYC (and, we’re sad to say, our press badges were just old-fashioned 2D printed), but there was plenty to look at, thankfully. Between the slew of business and consumer devices and the boatload of printed objects, the event was part business conference, part art show. And while the real star was the still-fresh world of desktop home printers, plenty of companies brought out their big-gun industrial devices (including at least one really sweet giant 3D scanner). Peep the gallery below to check out some of the eye candy from the event.

Filed under: Peripherals

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