HP accelerates transition to 3D production

April 10, 2018

At the Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) conference, HP Inc. showcased new large-scale customer deployments and its own Reinventing HP With Multi Jet Fusion program as the industry accelerates its journey to full-scale 3D production. 

According to Wohlers Report 2018, the production of functional parts, including functional prototyping, is now the industry’s leading additive manufacturing use-case and the demand for production-grade parts is expected to continue to grow exponentially.  

“Our mission is to change the way the world designs and manufacturers with 3D printing.  We are seeing an increase in high-volume 3D production as the industry accelerates its journey towards a digital future,” said Stephen Nigro, President of 3D Printing, HP Inc. “Customers are leaning in, driving improved economics, and increasing production of industrial-grade parts – in the last year alone more than three million parts were produced on Multi Jet Fusion and more than 50 percent are for end use.  As one of the largest manufacturers in the world, HP is also leveraging our own technology to transform our product development lifecycle to help lower costs, speed time to market, increase customer satisfaction, and improve sustainability across our business.”  

As demand for production-grade 3D printing grows, the OEM reveals that many HP customers are placing repeat orders and upgrading their deployments to increase capacity of their HP Jet Fusion 3D printer arrays to fulfil higher order volumes and grow their businesses. 

• Forecast 3D, one of the oldest and largest privately-held 3D manufacturers in the U.S., is upgrading its full fleet of 12 HP 3D printers to HP Jet Fusion 3D 4210 systems to meet rising demand.  For example, Forecast 3D expects to produce more than one million Multi Jet Fusion parts in the coming year for a leading client in the medical sector. The HP Jet Fusion 3D 4210 solution is designed for industrial-scale 3D manufacturing environments, offering significantly lower overall operating costs while increasing production capacity. 
• GoProto, with more than 500 clients across multiple industries, has installed six HP 4200 3D printers to meet expanding customer demand for high-volume prototyping and robust production applications.  The company leverages HP Multi Jet Fusion solutions to enable “exceptional” throughput capacity and to provide customers with fast, efficient, and reliable service. 
• Stern, known for conventional manufacturing for medical and automotive customers, is anchoring its new service bureau entity Stern 3Dwith HP Multi Jet Fusion technology. The company is installing 10 HP Jet Fusion 4200 3D printing solutions in its production facility near Stuttgart, Germany.

As part of the Reinventing HP With Multi Jet Fusion program, designed to leverage its own 3D printing technology to lower costs, speed time to market, increase customer satisfaction, and improve sustainability, HP is using Multi Jet Fusion across its Print, Personal Systems, and 3D Printing business units. 

“HP delivers nearly 100 million products annually through a sophisticated network of HP factories, original design manufacturers, and logistics providers across more than 170 countries,” said Stuart Pann, Chief Supply Chain Officer, HP Inc.  “This unique program brings together product design, engineering, procurement, supply chain operations, and manufacturing to unleash the potential of Multi Jet Fusion.  Embracing the design freedom of 3D printing, HP is making breakthroughs in cost, productivity, quality, and performance as we digitally reinvent our product lifecycle and supply chain.” 

With an eye on sustainability, HP explained that it is also pioneering 3D printing benefits such as reduced warehousing and transportation due to on-demand production, reduced scrap as a result of better supply/demand control, reduced material consumption and increased material recyclability, and reduced fuel consumption of the end product in industries such as auto and aerospace thanks to lightweight designs possible only with 3D printing.

Just a few real-world examples of the many benefits of HP’s first-of-its kind program include:

Design Freedom and Product Performance

• 50 percent of the custom plastic parts inside the Jet Fusion 4200, and over 140 parts inside the new Jet Fusion 300/500 Series, can be produced using Multi Jet Fusion technology.  This is believed to be the largest number of 3D produced parts in any finished product in the world.  The redesign and 3D production of these parts delivers higher performance in areas such as improved airflow, lightweighting, and optimization for space constraints, as well as lower costs and increased manufacturing flexibility, as it alleviates tooling and assembly time and costs. 
• A key part in HP’s Large Format Printers was redesigned to make use of topological optimization and is entering mass production with a 93 percent weight reduction,a 50 percent cost reduction and a 95x carbon footprint reduction versus the original aluminum machined part.
• HP included Multi Jet Fusion 3D printed parts in the HP ENVY ISS, the printer developed to replace the existing printing capability aboard the International Space Station. HP engineers turned to Multi Jet Fusion because it reduced cost, part count, and decreased assembly, compared toparts created with traditional manufacturing.  HP expedited development of its HP 3D High Reusability PA 12 Glass Beads Material to produce 11 parts for the HP ENVY ISS, including a specially-designed output tray to meet NASA’s list of requirements in order to safely operate onboard the International Space Station. 

Cost Savings, Speed to Market and Sustainability

• Reducing design time by up to 50 percent, and saving millions of dollars in deferred tooling expenses,for numerous parts across HP products such as air ducts in the Jet Fusion 4200 and the new HP Jet Fusion 300/500 series due to replacing complex multicomponent parts with one 3D printed part, thus eliminating many tooling, assembly, quality, and complex supply chain costs.
• A tool utilized in the manufacture of HP’s printheads was redesigned for Multi Jet Fusion to increase water tightness and reduce turbulence flow.  New materials utilization and part consolidation also led to lead times being reduced from months to days, 90 percent reduction in weight, 95 percent reduction in cost,and more than 30x reduction in carbon footprint.
• Instead of expensive tooling and moulding, plastic parts for the new HP Z 3D Camera were produced with Multi Jet Fusion leading to significant cost-savings and shortening the lead time by more than 6 weeks.

Categories : Around the Industry

Tags : 3D printing Digital HP Manufacturing Product Development USA