HP took a major stride into the world of 3D printing Tuesday by unveiling the HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution which it called “the world’s first production-ready 3D printing system for manufacturing.” The company said the new HP Jet Fusion 3D 3200 and Jet Fusion 3D 4200 are 10 times faster than any other 3D technology, with a unique ability to address more than 340 million voxels – the 3D equivalent of a 2D pixel in conventional printing – per second versus one point at a time.
The company’s 3D printing solution delivers superior physical parts at half the cost of competing systems. This is a printer that prints itself. Up to half the custom plastic parts in HP’s Jet Fusion 3D printers are produced on an HP Jet Fusion 3D printer, versus more costly, more time-consuming, and less efficient conventional manufacturing, HP said.
HP has been working with leading manufacturers, co-development partners and strategic partners, including Nike, BMW, Johnson & Johnson, Jabil, Siemens, Materialise, Shapeways, Autodesk, and Protolabs.
Future applications will add color printing and more materials, as well as voxel-level control for texture, transparency, flexibility, electrical conductivity, and more, according to HP.
