HP Jet Fusion 5200 Series promises breakthrough economics, productivity, and applications.
Today HP has announced the immediate launch of a new volume additive manufacturing solution along with a new global production network and industry partnerships.
When HP says ‘volume’, it means thousands of parts and the new HP Jet Fusion 5200 Series is said to unlock new opportunities in high volume production for true manufacturing with breakthrough economics, manufacturing predictability and new applications.
There will be three versions; the 5200, 5210 and 5210 Pro, the latter two delivering more industrial capabilities for higher manufacturing capacities. The systems have already been tested by partners and customers including Jaguar Land Rover, Materialise and Sculpteo.
The series builds on the success of HP’s current plastic Multi Jet Fusion portfolio which includes the Jet Fusion 300/500 functional prototyping systems and short run Jet Fusion 4200 solutions to deliver a “new class of systems”. The goal is to enable users to prototype and manufacture end-use products using the same manufacturing process and in just the last 12 months, the technology has been used to produce over 10 million plastic parts.
Described by HP’s VP of 3D Printing, Ramon Pastor, as “a significant move” in the direction towards on-demand production, distributed manufacturing and personalised products, the 5200 Series is said to deliver up to 40% improvement in productivity and up to 30% reduction on running costs versus HP’s previous series. In addition to a new white aesthetic, the technology has been upgraded to a single-pass configuration (compared to the two-pass system in the 4200) with a more powerful lamp, which enables higher productivity and opens up possibilities for printing in high-temp materials, according to Pastor.
Christoph Schell, President of 3D Printing and Digital Manufacturing at HP Inc, commented: "HP is committed to helping customers with diverse manufacturing needs turn change into opportunity by delivering the most innovative solutions portfolio and comprehensive ecosystem of industry-leading partners. The broadening of our portfolio with the new Jet Fusion 5200 Series 3D printing system, coupled with expanded industrial alliances and our new Digital Manufacturing network, are important accelerators of our digital manufacturing journey."
Complete end-to-end Jet Fusion 5200 solution.
HP is also delivering new software and materials to complement its new hardware including new 3D Process Control, HP Print Centre and 3D Parts Assessment Service, each designed to drive process control, dimensional accuracy and repeatability, factory optimisation and identify and optimise parts for AM. On the materials front, the company has teamed with BASF to qualify new thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), ULTRASINT, to expand the breadth of final-parts with flexible and elastomeric properties.
The company has not yet disclosed the price of the new system, stating that pricing will depend on the configuration of production machines and auxiliary technologies such as post-processing and cooling units required by the customer.
HP also announced the launch of its new HP Digital Manufacturing Network, a global community of production partners which will design, produce and deliver both plastic and metal parts at scale. Initial partners include GoProto, Forecast3D, Jabil, ZiggZagg NV, Materialise, Parmatech and GKN Powder Metallurgy.
Finally, the company detailed expanded alliances with industry partners Materialise, BASF and Siemens to strengthen its end to end workflow through new materials, applications and intelligent software solutions.
“Every time that you have a transition between analogue and digital, this means inefficiencies,” Pastor commented. “We aspire to get to a 100% digital thread throughout the workflow and for this we need partners.”
Going forward, HP’s 3D printing and data intelligence platform will be integrated with Siemens’ Digital Enterprise software portfolio.
Klaus Helmrich, CEO of Siemens Digital Industries and member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG added: “Siemens and HP are thinking ahead to the future and are bringing together the best from both companies in a complete, industry-specific solution that will accelerate the adoption of industrial additive manufacturing and help our customers to increase flexibility, efficiency, and speed of digital manufacturing.”
