Manufacturing Technology Centre welcomes the HP Jet Fusion 4200 3D printer

The HP platform was delivered to MTC via Europac 3D, the sole reseller of the machine in the UK.

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A tour of a Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) research facility leads a group of industry representatives beyond a Lumex Avance-25 Hybrid machine, past an Arcam Q20, an EOS M280, and a Renishaw AM250, and then a Stratasys J750, to its newest addition in the centre of the room.

Surrounded by fully operational 3D printing and milling machinery, sits the HP Jet Fusion 4200 platform. A crowd, guests of the MTC and Europac 3D industry open day on July 13th, gathered around the machine having just heard Victor Marti, HP’s 3D Print EMEA Go to Market Manager, deliver a presentation on HP’s flagship 3D technology. The printer, representing HP’s crossing from 2D printing, in which it has built a global repute, to 3D printing, was brought to MTC via Europac 3D.

Europac 3D, at the time of writing, is HP’s only reseller, or business partner as it prefers, of its 3D products in the UK. It was the 2015 TCT Show, HP’s first foray in to the 3D market infamous and imminent but still not actuated, when the partners first came together. The Jet Fusion 4200 was still eight months from its launch – which would come at the 2016 RAPID show in Florida. Dialogue between HP and Europac 3D, as well as several other UK-based resellers, was opened at the TCT Show, and by the start of 2016 the Crewe-based company was just one of three remaining as HP summoned them to a meeting in Barcelona. The full outlay of the machine was given, Non-Disclosure Agreements were signed, and mobile phones were ‘blanked off’ to prevent any word getting out.

As Europac 3D proceeded to become HP’s sole reseller of the Jet Fusion in the UK, its Managing Director, John Beckett, was then required to attend days of meetings, sit two online examinations, and a weeklong discussion about the product. After strict instructions to never deviate from the company’s ethos, to always be truthful and never misleading to customers, Beckett took a number of courses to become a fully trained operator of the platform.

Launched at RAPID 2016, British suitors took the summer to digest the machine, and at the TCT Show later that year, Europac 3D, again, greeted visitors to its booth. This time, Beckett and co weren’t talking to HP, but about HP. Jaguar Land Rover, who had taken on a beta version of the machine, requested an upgrade to the complete product. MTC followed, and putting a budget together, placed an order to become the first UK research centre, and fourth UK company overall after Europac 3D, Jaguar Land Rover, and Stage One, a manufacturing and design company in York, to install the Jet Fusion.

Standing as one of the leading research centres in the country, it is vaguely clear what MTC will be using the machine for – NDAs prevent Beckett, now on the board of MTC through Europac 3D’s partnership, from telling TCT. But he does cite a couple of players in the aerospace sector looking at the HP machine, and looking for MTC for some assistance.  

“[There are big companies] looking to buy one and so what they’ve done is they’ve asked MTC to verify technical information, like an independent report to them, to avoid having to do that exercise themselves,” Beckett says. “They will research it, print some parts, and say ‘here you are, here’s our report.’ That’s probably one of the main reasons it will be there – for R&D and verification reporting.”

Chris Ryall, Operations Manager, Additive Manufacturing at the MTC, adds: “It’s evident that the new HP Jet Fusion machines are set to revolutionise the 3D printing marketplace and bring real benefits to users. By housing one of the printers here at the National Centre we are able to open the use of it to industry, allowing them to explore and test the latest technologies and see what benefits 3D printing may be able to offer their operations.”

The European Space Agency is among the first companies to partner with MTC to use its ‘benchmarking’ services. MTC also wishes to make clear it is open to lending its technology and expertise to produce functional parts, akin to a bureau service. Its latest investment in 3D printing technology, follows the purchase of the Stratasys J750 in March, and represents a greater focus on additive manufacturing with polymers, as well as metals. It’s an investment that opens a few more doors for the Coventry-based research hub, just like many of the ones that have preceded it.

“I think you could say they have invested wisely and as a research facility for the surrounding UK economy and UK engineering companies, they have done a good job, there’s no question about it,” Beckett assesses, recalling a presentation given at the MTC launch of the Jet Fusion in which the first ever 3D printed fan casting of a turbine engine to be flown was showed off. “Their research and their ability to complete tasks [shows] they’re doing a good job. They’ve invested in only the best technology from which they can value their expertise.”

The deal to bring a HP machine to the MTC was overseen from start to finish by Beckett and his Europac 3D team. His company was the link between a global technology brand finding its feet in the 3D world and a government-backed, industry-leading research group. While he now has a position with MTC, his work connecting companies from all kinds of industries with the HP platform will continue.

At the Europac 3D office in Crewe, the company has a Jet Fusion machine, with which it invites potential customers to see what the machine can do, printing an end-use part to their standard and specifications. Of course, Beckett is confident every time the machine will impress. He projects he and his team committed 65 days to learning every facet of the Jet Fusion, and the HP 3D printing roadmap, in the infancy of Europac 3D’s partnership with HP. And with every use of the platform, his confidence in it grows.

“The HP machine does exactly what it says on the tin. It prints parts ten times faster, it cools them more than ten times faster,” Beckett says unequivocally. “You can build accurate, functional parts with better surface finish than currently from an SLS machine, a fraction of the finishing time because there’s no gases that you have to prevent burning, you don’t have any chemical wash, there’s no support structures to clean off, and that wastage is so much less than anybody else. I mean, a typical SLS throws away 80% [of material] and 20% is recycled. [HP’s Jet Fusion] is completely the opposite. We [can] recycle 80% and just lose 20%, so the cost of building the part and the cost of running the machine is significantly lower.”

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