HP Innovation Journal Issue 01: Winter 2015 | Page 11

INNOVATION SPOTLIGHT
Don’t miss our
next issue on
megatrends!
Humanity will face more change
over the next 15 years than in
all of human history to date. The
world will be deeply affected
by rapid urbanization, changing
demographics, hyper globalization,
sustainability challenges and
technology acceleration. These
megatrends will touch every
individual, business, culture, and
nation state. How will HP respond?
Read our next issue to find out.
Innovation Journal
INVENTING THE BLENDED WORLD OF TOMORROW
THE BREAKTHROUGH
SPEED OF HP’S FIRST
COMMERCIAL 3D PRINTER
WILL BE A BOON TO
PATIENTS WHO NEED
PROSTHETICS These improvements include a lower
cost for the machine itself and lower
cost per part produced. Moreover, the
parts produced by HP’s new 3D printer
are higher quality in terms of accuracy,
precision, and strength—especially
important characteristics for medical
devices. Best of all, the new printer is a
speed demon compared to traditional
3D printers.
Medical prosthetic developers have
long embraced 3D printing as a
transformational technology. HP’s first
commercial 3D printer, due for release
next year, offers the kind of innovative
technology most needed by the medical
community: cost-effective, high-quality,
and speedy. The speed breakthrough was made
possible by building the 3D printer
around the page-wide print technology
of HP’s Multi Jet Fusion tm printer. “Page-
wide is fast in the 2D world, and it’s
fast in the 3D world,” notes Benning.
“Competitive solutions use scanning
lasers and a point-by-point approach.
Page-wide is a layer-by-layer approach
that gives us tremendous speed
advantages.”
3D prosthetics are “having a real,
immediate impact on peoples’ lives,”
says Paul Benning, Chief Technologist,
3D Printing and Print Engines. “Doctors
can help more patients, and they can
produce things locally and affordably. If
a patient has to travel for a prosthetic
appointment, they can work with that
patient and make fitting adjustments or
print a new limb, on the spot.”
The introduction of HP’s first commercial
3D printer should improve that process
and better even more lives. “We have
invented a brand-new technology
for 3D printing that’s at least a 10X
improvement over existing commercial
techniques,” says Benning.
HP CONFIDENTIAL: FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY
That speed advantage will help patients
who need prosthetic devices. But the
advantages of the new printer won’t
stop there. Benning notes that HP’s
work in 3D printing will create many
opportunities in a medical field that’s
racing to develop 3D-printed hearts and
other body parts.
“The tools of design and the ability to
produce things no longer require huge
capital outlay,” he says. Thanks to tools
like HP’s new 3D printer, “entrepreneurs
with good ideas can bring ideas into the
physical world and scale from one part
to a million parts.”
INNOVATION JOURNAL ISSUE 1 11