Ahead of the formnext 2019 additive manufacturing conference, HP announced a series of subscriptions and services to help customers more easily integrate 3D printing into their digital manufacturing strategies. To further enable customers to transform their manufacturing, HP also announced a series of expanded industrial partnerships and is showcasing new applications and use cases with industry leaders such as Siemens, Volkswagen, and more.
“The journey to digital manufacturing requires more than just technology. Customers want integrated solutions coupled with convenient capital models providing the predictability, transparency, and flexibility to quickly scale their businesses,” said Ramon Pastor, interim President of 3D Printing and Digital Manufacturing, HP Inc.
Lowering barriers to adoption
As customers scale to mass production with 3D printing, HP is providing options to help them improve business agility and speed their transformation to digital manufacturing, including:
- The HP 3D as a Service (3DaaS) Base subscription service provides customers automatic replenishment of HP 3D Supplies, simplified tracking of billing and usage, and reliable remote and on-site support services. The new pay-per-build service is available for the HP Jet Fusion 5200, HP Jet Fusion 4200, and HP Jet Fusion 500 series 3D solutions.
- The HP 3D as a Service (3DaaS) Plus subscription offering integrates hardware, supplies, and services and is for customers looking to accelerate product life cycles with optimized in-house rapid prototyping and final part production. The initial 3DaaS Plus subscription starts with the HP Jet Fusion 340 solution, with additional 3DaaS subscriptions to be introduced.
- HP is expanding the HP Digital Manufacturing Network with new partners Prototal in Europe and Solize in Japan. The HP Digital Manufacturing Network is a global community of digital manufacturing service providers for high-quality, high-volume Multi Jet Fusion and Metal Jet part production. Customers around the world can access this distributed network of plastics and metals parts providers to quickly scale up parts production when and where they need.
Expanded Industry 4.0 alliances
New collaborations across the ecosystem will help customers realize the full potential of digital manufacturing. HP is committed to a broad partner strategy on behalf of customers and announced several expanded industrial alliances, including:
- Siemens and HP are showcasing new serial production-ready parts designed with two leading automotive industry suppliers. Leveraging the recently announced HP + Siemens additive manufacturing solution, automotive engineering expert EDAG has developed a topology-optimized active coolant distributor for electric vehicles and Adient, a global leader in automotive seating for all major automakers, is creating a new seat headrest optimized for size and light-weighting without compromising material strength and flexibility.
- Lubrizol, a $7 billion specialty chemicals leader and an existing HP 3D printing materials partner, is announcing the availability of a new certified thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) material for HP Jet Fusion 4200 3D printing solutions. TPU is for flexible and elastic parts and opens up new market opportunities for HP’s 3D printing customers. The Lubrizol TPU complements HP’s existing High Reusability PA-12, PA-12 Glass Beads, PA-11, and BASF Ultrasint TPU materials.
- AM Solutions, a division of the Rösler group, a world leader in the equipment, process technologies and consumables for the automed post processing and surface finishing of 3D printed parts, and HP unveiled a new partnership to enable a more robust and scalable 3D printing post-processing workflow. Additionally, Rosler plans to use the HP Jet Fusion 5200 Series 3D solution for design and optimization of its own products, and offer Multi Jet Fusion design, part production, and finishing services to its end customers.
Journey to mass production
Last year Volkswagen Group selected HP Metal Jet as the foundation for its strategy to industrialize additive manufacturing. Volkswagen and HP are executing a multi-year design and production roadmap and recently crossed an important milestone. In partnership with GKN Powder Metallurgy, the companies completed a production run of more than 10,000 high quality parts produced in just a few weeks to support the visionary ID.3 electric vehicle launch event.