HP has unveiled the Jet Fusion, claiming it to be the world’s first production-ready commercial 3D printing system, designed for model shops and 3D print service bureaus.
According to the company, the HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution delivers a siimplified workflow and reduced cost for prototyping. It offers superior quality physical parts up to 10 times faster and at half the cost of current 3D print systems. By printing functional parts for the first time at the individual voxel level (a voxel is the 3D equivalent of a 2D pixel in traditional printing), HP offers customers an unprecedented ability to transform part properties and deliver mass customization. Furthermore, open materials and software innovation lowers barriers to adoption and enables new applications across industries.
“Our 3D printing platform is unique in its ability to address over 340 million voxels per second, versus one point at a time, giving our prototyping and manufacturing partners radically faster build speeds, functional parts and breakthrough economics,” said Stephen Nigro, president of HP’s 3D printing business. “The new HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution delivers a combination of speed, quality, and cost never seen in the industry. Businesses and manufacturers can completely rethink how they design and deliver solutions to their customers.”
The new HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution leverages HP’s decades of research and expertise in precision mechanics, microfluidics and materials sciences, along with the input and support of leading manufacturers, co-development partners and strategic partners, including Nike, BMW, Johnson & Johnson, Jabil, Siemens, Materialise, Shapeways, Autodesk, and Protolabs.
“BMW is a pioneer and early adopter of innovative technologies in the field of additive manufacturing, especially for prototyping in concept cars and series-like approval builds. For our future roadmap toward serial part production and personal customization, we see major potential in our partnership with HP to investigate this new kind of 3D printing technology at an early stage. As one of the first partners, we had the chance to see the constant evolution of the machines over time from the first prototype approximately five years ago to the market ready product that is available now,” said Jens Ertel, Head of BMW Group Additive Manufacturing Center.
HP is offering two new 3D printers, designed for rapid prototyping and production.
• The HP Jet Fusion 3D 3200 Printer is aimed at prototyping, offering improved productivity and the capacity to grow usage at a lower cost per part.
• The HP Jet Fusion 3D 4200 Printer is designed for prototyping and short-run manufacturing needs, with high productivity to meet same-day demands at the lowest cost per part.
• A synchronized set of tools includes intuitive software, an innovative HP Jet Fusion 3D Processing Station with Fast Cooling, and high-quality materials.
The HP Jet Fusion 3D 4200 printer will be delivered in late 2016, with the HP Jet Fusion 3D 3200 printer following in 2017.
Delivering on the open-platform vision announced in 2014, HP and certified partners will collaborate to enable materials innovation and new applications for the HP Multi Jet Fusion Solution, leading to reduced 3D printing costs and faster industry adoption of 3D printing. HP is creating the 3D material app store and is already collaborating with such certified partners as Arkema, BASF, Evonik and Lehmann & Voss, with plans to expand the open platform ecosystem over time.
HP has also collaborated with industry-leading software partners to make the design-to-print process easier and more intuitive. Partners include Autodesk, Materialise and Siemens. Through its integration with key manufacturing software solution providers, HP is enabling deeper integration of 3D printing into manufacturing processes. HP is a founding member of the industry consortium that developed 3MF, an improved 3D printing file format. The HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution is the first 3D printer to be fully compliant with this industry-leading standard.
