HP
HP has made a series of announcements at RAPID + TCT, including an increased build height for its Metal Jet S100 solution.
The developments have been made to streamline and expand the potential of additive manufacturing.
Among these developments are several advancements to its HP Metal Jet offering. First, HP has expanded the Metal Jet S100 build volume from 430 x 309 x 140 mm to 430 x 309 x 170 mm, which allows for the production of bigger parts and larger volumes.
The company is also introducing new materials through collaborations with Indo-MIM and Sandvik, including the IndoMIM M2 Tool Steel for high-strength mould inserts and cutting tools, and Sandvik's Osprey 316L for improved corrosion resistance and processability for medical, automotive and industrial applications. Both materials have undergone rigorous HP qualification processes, helping to ensure reliable performance and accessibility.
HP has also launched the HP Metal Jet Production Service, where customers will be able to submit queries, request sample parts and access production services, in a bid to help users overcome cost, time and effort barriers when it comes to adopting metal additive manufacturing. To support this initiative, HP has established a Metal Jet Adoption Center located in Corvallis, Oregon. This centre provides end-to-end application qualifications, from benchmarking and sample part testing to process optimisation.
HP secures new software partnerships
In addition to these advancements to its Metal Jet offering, HP has also secured collaborations with Autodesk, Altair, and CoreTechnologie. The Autodesk collaboration has resulted in the readiness of the Autodesk Fusion bundle with HP printers, enhancing design and production integration, while the partnership with Altair will provide customers with proprietary HP material information, facilitating better design and production of additive parts. CoreTechnologie’s collaboration with HP aims to elevate texturing for 3D printed parts, providing users with an extensive digital texture library within the 4D_Additive software, pushing the boundaries of surface design.
An additional software partnership with Dyndrite will support HP's entire 3D printing ecosystem, giving the option for users to to use Dyndrite build manager software to create and submit print jobs. Additionally, HP’s multi-level build feature included in the process development will allow printing process parameters to be adjusted on a per level basis for up to 20 levels within a single build.
Finally, the HP 3D Texture Visualizer, developed by Leopoly, will help to enhance the 3D design process by allowing users to apply and visualise digital 3D textures on their CAD geometry in real time. The tool will also support the import of custom digital textures and provides the flexibility to adjust parameters like scaling, depth, and resolution.
Enhancements to HP’s Polymer 3D Printing platform
HP has also announced new materials features, and capabilities for the HP Jet Fusion 5600 Series 3D Printing Solution, addressing a series of common pain points across the manufacturing process.
According to HP, delivering a full materials portfolio remains a top priority for the company. Both the HP 3D HR PA12 S, enabled by Arkema, and BASF Ultrasint TPU01 materials will now be available. Since the introduction of the HP 3D HR PA12 S material in March at the annual AMUG (Additive Manufacturing User Group) Conference, HP says customers have benefitted from reductions in total cost of ownership (TCO) and improved surface finish. For BASF Ultrasint TPU01 users, HP is said to be delivering up to a 20% reduction in TCO through the enablement of higher refresh rates of up to 90/10 material usage and reduced service pricing of the HP Jet Fusion 5600 Series 3D Printing Solution.
HP is also enabling HP 3D HR PA12 W in the HP Jet Fusion 5600 Series 3D Printing Solution to address demand for bright colour part applications with minimal additional post-processing cost. The HP 3D HR PA12 W is designed to enhance colour versatility, manufacturing equipment flexibility and reduce post-processing costs with UV resistance relative to PA12. This solution is ideal for part providers and OEMs in industrial, orthotics and prosthetics, and consumer goods sectors who want to dye parts in bright colours.
To overcome challenges associated with Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) materials in advanced industrial applications, a new ESD print mode will be available for the HP Jet Fusion 5600 Series 3D Printing Solution at no additional cost. This feature will allow service bureaus, assembly lines, electronics manufacturers, and others to achieve dissipative properties on parts printed with HP Mult Jet Fusion technology. This is enabled thanks to HP Multi Jet Fusion’s voxel-control agent capabilities, meaning that customers will not need additional hardware to receive these benefits.
In order to address acquisition costs for customers, the HP Jet Fusion 5000 3D Printer will now support an increased variety of materials, including HP 3D HR PA11, HP 3D HR PA12 S, enabled by Arkema, HP 3D HR PP enabled by BASF with a manual workflow, and BASF Ultrasint TPU01 and Estane 3D TPU M88A with a processing station, further enhancing its versatility and cost-efficiency. On the HP Jet Fusion 5600 Series 3D Printing Solution HP continues to reduce idle times between consecutive prints, and now customers with the HP Jet Fusion Automation Accessory will benefit from improved fast swap capabilities, further contributing to cost savings, especially in high-volume production environments.
“We are excited to help our customers better design parts for HP Metal Jet and HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solutions by giving them access to HP material information,” said Yeshwant Mummaneni, Chief Engineer of Data Management and Analytics at Altair. “Through this collaboration with HP, we are creating a bridge across the often-siloed functions of design and production of additive parts so that even more exciting applications can be realised.”
“HP is deeply committed to driving the additive manufacturing industry forward with persistent and new enhancements to our existing portfolio," added Savi Baveja, President of HP Personalization & 3D Printing. "Our innovations in both metal and polymer 3D printing technologies are testament to our dedication to advancing the capabilities and applications of 3D printing, empowering our customers to turn their ideas into reality with unprecedented efficiency and quality.”
HP is exhibiting at RAPID + TCT from booth #1167.
