HP Innovation Journal Issue 11: Winter 2018 | Page 14

T his fall HP launched the world’s most advanced 3D printing technology for the mass production of metal parts, HP Metal Jet. It was a giant step forward in our mission to transform the way the world designs and manufactures goods, introduced at the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago. In press coverage and on the show floor, the HP Metal Jet launch was described as a breakthrough. This echoed the acclaim garnered by the introduction of Multi Jet Fusion technology four years earlier. With these 3D printing advancements, HP has changed the landscape of 3D printing, bringing speed, quality, and low cost to the industry. Believing in the transformational nature of this technology, HP has created an open platform, inviting the world to participate in realizing its potential. Additive manufacturing—the space 3D printing is driving—is a relatively small percentage of the $12 trillion manufacturing industry today. The majority of goods are manufactured through a subtractive process—starting with a block of raw material and shaping it into an end product. With the shift to additive manufacturing, digital designs direct the layering and binding of powdered material to create a physical object. Plastic and metal are finally ready for mass production, with the arrival of materials and processes that are used to create lightweight, industrial-strength parts. HP's 3D print solutions are delivering the materials choice, cost efficiency, and func- tionality required to compete with traditional manufac- turing methods. This offers a profound reinvention of the way we think about making things. HP’s path to the Metal Jet breakthrough might be thought of as “additive innovation”—layering new ideas and capabilities onto 30 years of accrued expertise in printhead and chemistry innovation. The implications of mastering 3D metal printing are huge with the auto, in- dustrial, and medical sectors alone produce billions of metal parts each year, the majority from iron and steel. Until now, metal 3D printing has been mostly used for extremely expensive specialty applications using exotic metals: tita- nium prosthetics, for example, in the medical industry. HP Metal Jet delivers mechanically functional parts at up to 50 times better productivity over other 3D printing methods 1 and at significantly lower cost 2 compared to 12 HP Innovation Journal Issue 11 other binder jetting systems. The new Metal Jet 3D printing platform unlocks the speed, quality, and economics to en- able customers to completely rethink the way they design, manufacture, and deliver new solutions in the digital age. It’s no accident that “design” is central to any discussion of additive manufacturing. Designing differently to an entirely new set of parameters is a critical first step on the journey. To share these new capabilities with designers, producers, and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) before the Metal Jet systems are commercially available next year, HP has announced the Metal Jet Production Service. In the first half of 2019, customers will be able to upload 3D design files and receive industrial-grade parts in large quantities. Commercial HP Metal Jet solutions will be offered at under $399,000 and begin shipping in 2020 to early customers, with broad availability in 2021. THE HP METAL JET TECHNOLOGY ECOSYSTEM EMERGES HP is partnering with GKN Powder Metallurgy to deploy HP Metal Jet in their factories to produce functional metal parts for auto and industrial leaders, including Volkswagen automotive and Wilo, a leading global manufacturer of pumps and pump system solutions. GKN Powder Metallurgy produces more than three billion components per year and expects to print millions of production-grade HP Metal Jet parts for its customers across industries as early as next year. “We’re at the tipping point of an exciting new era from which there will be no return: the future of mass production with 3D printing. HP’s new Metal Jet technology enables us to expand our business by taking on new opportunities that were previously cost prohibitive,” said Peter Oberparleiter, CEO of GKN Powder Metallurgy. Volkswagen's multiyear plan to use HP Metal Jet includes the production of high-performance functional parts with significant structural requirements, such as gearshift knobs and mirror mounts. “A single car consists of 6,000 to 8,000 different parts. A big advantage of an additive technology like HP Metal Jet is it allows us to produce many of these parts without first having to build manufacturing tools. By reducing the cycle time for the production of parts, we can realize a higher volume of mass production very quickly,” said Dr. Martin Goede, Head of Technology Planning and Development, Volkswagen. As new platforms such as electric vehicles enter mass production, HP Metal Jet is expected to be leveraged for additional applications such as the production of fully safety-certified, lighter-weight metal parts.