HP’s soap opera story – HP maintains readiness to sell 3D printers

When in the autumn 2014 HP announced that it started to work also in 3D printing industry and presented their 3D printer, printing in innovative technology Multi Jet Fusion, we could have think, that we were wintesses of a revolution. However, the next months showed, that it’s rather not a breakthrough… it’s some kind of a mexican soap opera from for housewives.

HP was devided into two separate companies and wants to carry on a restructuring, invest a lot of money in a research center focused on 3D and 4D technology in Spain and to proclaim a lot of declarations about it, how important is 3D printing for long term plans of the enterprise.

From the beginning of January 2016, during conference of Autodesk, HP lifted a veil of secrecy, however paradoxically, it evoked even more questions and hestitations… A 3D printer should have been available from 2017 (not from 2016, according to the company’s declarations…) and it should have had limited functions. But in the recent interview with in magazine ComputerWorld, Steve Nigro – HP’s senior vice president of imaging and printig, claimed, that everything was going accorting to the plan and that the premiere would be started in this year. Does anyone control it?

The technology MJF should work as followed:

• on a layer of powdered material (most probalby simmilar to polymers used in SLS) will be selctively put a special glue and dye (this process is simipar to CJP – 3D printing in full-colour from gypsum powder),
• than, then next layer will be put, which will guarantee high resolution/precision of the model,
• after that, the next layer of powdered material, which will be heated in high temperature, forming a clsed layer of 3D model.

What do we know?

• The whole process of 3D printing will be very quick and will give a possibility to print in full-colour in resolution from 600 dpi to 2400 dpi – so from 42 μm to 11 μm.
• In MJF will be possible to combine different materials in one process of 3D printing.
• 3D printer from HP will be available till the end of 2016, but it will be only a final prototype, a sale of ready devices will start in 2017.
• The first devices which will be sold, will only print in one colour, and the full-functionalism will be available in the next models, which will be available on the market “later”.

Nigro declared that:

• a 3D printer is ready for mass production and will be distrubuted in 2016,
• HP is not interested in 3D printing market, but in producting market…,
• a 3D printer will cost between ma 100.000$ – 1.000.000$ (so it will cost like a flat or a villa with a swimming pool…),
• HP rstarted to cooperate with potential customers, like f.e. Shapeways.

What’s more, Ponadto Nigro repeated/confirmed absolute majority of information about this 3D printer and MJF technology. In the next week, HP is planning to present its project during conference “South by South West” (SXSW) in Austin in the USA. I’m waiting for more precise information, because I’m fed up with statments about MJF which is better than another technologies… And I want to know also a date of the premiere of the device.

Source: www.computerworld.com
Picture: www.latintimes.com