Because apparently Americans don't have easy enough access to junk food, soon getting a candy bar could be as easy as hitting "print." 
 
 3D Systems (DDD) announced a deal with Hershey's (HSY) Thursday to collaborate on developing a 3-D printer that makes chocolate and other edible products. 
 
 In a statement, 3D Systems said making printers that print chocolate is a good way to help the relatively new technology go mainstream. Hershey sees it as a great delivery system for its products. 
 
 "Whether it's creating a whole new form of candy or developing a new way to produce it, we embrace new technologies such as 3-D printing as a way to keep moving our timeless confectionery treats into the future," said William Papa, head of research and development at Hershey, in a statement. 
 
 Related: This 3-D printer makes edible food 
 
 There is no word as to when the magical device might be available or how much it might cost. 
 
 3-D printing allows people to print actual, tangible products instead of words on a page. It's usually done by adding the raw material -- plastic, metal, or, in this case, chocolate -- to the printer instead of ink and building the product layer by layer. 
 
 At the consumer level, most 3-D printing is done by hobbyists, who print everything from toys to clothes to musical instruments. Consumer 3-D printers start at about $1,000. 
 
 But at the industrial level they are used to make manufacturing operations more efficient, making mostly high end products for the aerospace, medical or automotive sectors. 
 
 Some think 3-D printing could soon revolutionize the manufacturing sector, cutting out the need for expensive transportation and making the whole concept of outsourcing seem so 20th century. 

 3D printing has never tasted so sweet. CNN reports that Hershey’s is teaming up with 3D Systems to make a 3D printer that can make chocolates and other sweets that you can custom-design right in your home. This means that, provided you have enough raw chocolate on hand, you can finally fulfill your dream of creating a giant chocolate replica of Michelangelo’s David, Rodin’s Thinker and other famous sculptures… or you can just pop out a ton of Hershey’s Kisses and eat them. A Hershey’s representative tells CNN that the company wants to “embrace new technologies such as 3-D printing as a way to keep moving our timeless confectionery treats into the future.” No release date or pricing information for this incredible product have yet been announced. 

 Hershey Co. is joining with 3D Systems Corp. to develop ways to use 3-D printing technology to produce foods, including confectionery treats. 
 
 "Whether it is creating a whole new form of candy or developing a new way to produce it, we embrace new technologies such as 3-D printing as a way to keep moving our timeless confectionery treats into... 

 The chocolate in the candy aisle could soon begin to look a lot weirder. 3D Systems announced today that it will partner with the Hershey Company to develop "innovative opportunities" in 3D-printed food. The multi-year agreement will have 3D Systems working with Hershey to come up with new ways of delivering 3D-printed food to consumers. 
 
 Hershey is the first big food company to jump on the 3D-printed confection bandwagon, and 3D Systems gains a lot from it. The company will get its products like the ChefJet into the hands of the largest producer of chocolate in North America, which can easily shell out the money to pay for the machines and invest in developing and testing different kinds of 3D-printed food. As far as Hershey goes, the spoils will come over time. If the partnership produces something desirable to consumers, Hershey could gain name recognition as the first 3D-printing confectioner giant. 
 
 Could 3D-printed Hershey Kisses be just as good as regular ones? 
 
 We've seen other kinds of 3D-printed chocolate in the past. MIT Media Lab's David Carr created the peculiar "Eat Your Face Machine" back in 2011, which uses a computer to take a model of a person's face and then carves that face in a block of chocolate. Instead of becoming a universal hit, it ended up teaching Carr more about the social implications of eating a 3D model of a person's face — as it turns out, people weren't too thrilled about it, even if it was made out of chocolate. 
 
 
 
 
 
 But since the technology is there to make a 3D-printed chocolate face, there's no reason why we can't have 3D-printed Hershey Kisses. We saw some 3D-printed candies at CES 2014 made from 3D Systems' ChefJet that looked much more like traditional confections, and they actually tasted good, too. However, those candies are very fragile — the ones made of chocolate hold up slightly better than the ones made of sugar, which crumble to sweet dust in your mouth immediately — and only people in California can order bags of them from Cubify. Currently, 3D-printed candy is localized to where companies like 3D Systems are, and with the ChefJet models priced between $5,000 and $10,000, consumers are not going to run out and buy one any time soon. If 3D Systems and Hershey can develop a way to make stronger, more portable 3D-printed chocolates, it'll be one more step toward making 3D-printed food more accessible, and acceptable, to everyone.
– Imagine what Willy Wonka could do with this: Hershey says it's teaming up with a company called 3D Systems to develop a 3D printer that spits out, yes, chocolate, reports CNN. Essentially, the "ink well" would be filled with chocolate, and the machine would use it to produce candy in traditional or funky shapes. "This means that, provided you have enough raw chocolate on hand, you can finally fulfill your dream of creating a giant chocolate replica of Michelangelo’s David, Rodin’s Thinker and other famous sculptures," writes Brad Reed at BGR. "Or you can just pop out a ton of Hershey’s Kisses and eat them." It's not clear when the printers might be out or how much they will cost, but don't expect them to be cheap. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show, 3D Systems showed off its candy-printing ChefJet, which will soon be on the market for professional confectioners, reports the Verge. The models are $5,000 and $10,000. The market for 3D printing of all kinds is expected to boom in the coming years, notes the Wall Street Journal, and Hershey's early entry into the candy business could give it an important head start if things take off.