HP Unveils 3D Printer To ‘Reinvent’ Prototyping, Manufacturing

HP this week announced what it called the world's first production-ready commercial 3D printer.

The Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution, unveiled at the RAPID additive manufacturing conference in Orlando, offers companies "a combination of speed, quality and cost never seen in the industry," HP officials said.

The system can address more than 340 million printing points per second instead of the one point at a time in conventional 3D printers, which HP said would translate to superior printed parts at 10 times the speed and half the cost.

Nine partner companies, including BMW and Nike, helped develop the system and are already involved in testing it.
 
"Businesses and manufacturers can completely rethink how they design and deliver solutions to their customers," HP 3D printing chief Stephen Nigro said in a statement.

The company debuted two printers: the $130,000 HP Jet Fusion 3D 3200 Printer — aimed at prototyping — and the $155,000 HP Jet Fusion 3D 4200 Printer, which can incorporate short-run manufacturing.

HP is taking orders for both printers, with the 4200 expected to be delivered late this year and the 3200 next year.

HP also vowed to continue to work with partner companies to develop open platforms and enable faster adoption by industry. Eventually, the system could incorporate embedded security codes or smart sensors to connect printed items to the Internet of Things.

"We want to change the way the world prints parts," Nigro said.