HP has unveiled what it claims to be the world’s first production-reading 3D printer family, built to print parts ten times faster than competitors’ printers.
The HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution was announced at the 3D additive manufacturing conference, RAPID, and it is aimed for designing, prototyping and manufacturing.
The multi jet fusion solution is made of two different models. The HP Jet Fusion 3D 4200 Printer, due to be launched by the end of 2016, has been built for prototyping and short-run manufacturing needs, with high productivity to meet same-day demands with a low cost per part.
The second model, HP’s Jet Fusion 3D 3200 Printer, is only expected to be launched next year and has been designed forprototyping, but with improved productivity and the capacity to grow usage at a lower cost per part.
In addition, HP has also unveiled a synchronised set of tools that include intuitive software and HP’s Jet Fusion 3D Processing Station with Fast Cooling.
According to HP, the 3D Processing Station with Fast Cooling accelerates parts cooling time versus recommended manufacturer time of SLS printer solutions.
HP CEO Dion Weisler, recently told Fortune magazine that the company is planning its way to enter the $12tr injection moulding market.
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He said that with 3D printing "we get to democratise manufacturing."
Customers’ can pre-order the 3D 3200 printer from HP’s website. The starting price is set at $130,000 and up to a maximum price of $155,000, which includes the printer and the separate Processing Station.
The 3D 4200 model will be shipped for over $200,000 and the price will also vary depending on customers’ configurations to the machine.
Stephen Nigro, President of HP’s 3D printing business, said: "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.
"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."
HP has already established a 3D ecosystem of manufacturers, co-development partners and strategic partners, including Nike, BMW, Autodesk, Jabil, Johnson & Johnson, Materialise, Proto Labs, Shapeways and Siemens.
Tom Clarke, President of Innovation at Nike, said: "We have been using 3D printing to create new performance innovations for footwear for the past several years. Now we are excited to partner with HP to accelerate and scale our existing capabilities as we continue to explore new ways to manufacture performance products to help athletes reach their full potential."
The 3D printing market value is expected to grow at a CAGR of 43.5% between 2015 and 2020, according to the most recent research in this segment by Canalys.
By the end of 2016, the market will be worth $4.9bn, a value set to increase to $22.4bn by 2020. Shipments of 3D printers are forecast to grow at a CAGR of 67.2%, to reach 2.4 million units by 2020, up from today’s 400,000.
