HP Planning To Enter The 3D Printer Space In June

 HP CEO Meg Whitman casually noted that the company would have a “big technology announcement” in June related to the 3D printing space, a move that could place 3D printers into the hands of casual home and industrial users. Whitman also mentioned that the company has solved a number of 3D printing problems and expects that “the bigger market is going to be in the enterprise space.”

 Whitman made these remarks in her regular shareholders call. There was no mention of an exact date.

 HP first came onto the 3D printing radar in February when CTO Martin Fink said he expected the company to begin working in the space later in the year. “HP is currently exploring the many possibilities of 3D printing and the company will play an important role in its development,” he wrote.

 Does this mean you’ll be able to pick up a 3D printer in Best Buy? Not likely – yet. With HP moving into the enterprise market and the home printer market sewn up by Makerbot and myriad other printers, big names just don’t make sense yet, especially given the pricing and costs associated with 3D printing. However I could imagine HP making quite a dent in the enterprise side of things, which could give incumbents like Stratasys pause.

___________________________________________________________________________________

source:Techcrunch

3D-printed food technology

Hershey and 3D Systems join forces to develop 3D-printed food technology

Hershey and 3D Systems are partnering together to develop new products (Photo: Shutterstock)

 We've seen a cornucopia of 3D food printers specialized for consumer and prosumer chefs, from the multipurpose Foodini to 3D Systems' ChefBot. Now a major corporation has expressed interest in the sprouting 3D-printed food industry – chocolate-maker Hershey has announced a development partnership with 3D Systems.

 The announcement mentioned plans to develop not only new candy confections with the technology, but also a new class of printers. The press release described Hershey as embracing new technologies to move its candies into the future, though also left the language vague enough to include foods that weren't candies.

 3D Systems made headlines earlier this month when it announced a sugar printer which doesn't print in chocolate, though a representative of the company describes some of their recipes as tasting like a chocolate cookie and others as having more of a candy consistency.

 Chocolate printing systems have unique complexities inherent with chocolate, such as keeping the chocolate flowing and tempering it properly for a nice finish and snap.

 The partnership is part of 3D's described goal of mainstreaming 3D printing and expanding into edibles.

_______________________________________________________________________________

 source: gizmag.com