Today at the 2018 IMTS show, HP Inc. launched HP Metal Jet, an advanced metal 3D printer for high volume manufacturing of production-grade metal parts. HP Metal Jet is being used by manufacturing leaders GKN Powder Metallurgy and Parmatech for the factory production of final parts. Customers placing orders include Volkswagen and Wilo and vertical market leaders such as Primo Medical Group and OKAY Industries.
HP also launched the Metal Jet Production Service, enabling customers to rapidly iterate new 3D part designs, produce final parts in volume, and integrate HP Metal Jet into their long-term production roadmaps.
“We are in the midst of a digital industrial revolution that is transforming the $12 trillion manufacturing industry,” said Dion Weisler, CEO and President, HP Inc. “The implications are huge – the auto, industrial, and medical sectors alone produce billions of metal parts each year.”
HP Metal Jet is a voxel-level binder jetting technology leveraging more than 30 years of HP printhead and advanced chemistries innovation. The bed size is 430 x 320 x 200 mm, with 4x the nozzle redundancy and 2x the printbars, and significantly less binder by weight. HP Metal Jet will start with stainless steel finished parts, delivering isotropic properties that meet or exceed ASTM and MPIF Standards.
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 and Wilo. GKN Powder Metallurgy is a leading producer of materials and products using powder metallurgy technologies and includes the brands of GKN Sinter Metals, GKN Hoeganaes, and GKN Additive Manufacturing. The company 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.
Volkswagen is integrating HP Metal Jet into its long-term design and production roadmap. The collaboration between Volkswagen, GKN Powder Metallurgy and HP has enabled Volkswagen engineers to move quickly to assess the manufacturing of mass-customizable parts such as individualized key rings and exterior-mounted name plates. Volkswagen‘s multi-year plan to use HP Metal Jet also includes the production of higher performance functional parts with significant structural requirements, such as gearshift knobs and mirror mounts. As new platforms such as electric vehicles enter mass production, HP Metal Jet is expected to be leveraged for additional applications such as the lightweighting of fully safety-certified metal parts.
“The auto industry is being revolutionized – not only do customers now expect personalization, but by 2025 the brands of Volkswagen Group will have introduced 80 new electric models,“ said Dr. Martin Goede, Head of Technology Planning and Development, Volkswagen. “A single car consists of six thousand to eight thousand 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 quickly.“
GKN Powder Metallurgy is also leveraging HP Metal Jet technology to produce cost-effective industrial parts with higher hydraulic efficiency for Wilo, a global leader for pumps and pump system solutions. Wilo is looking to HP Metal Jet technology to produce initial hydraulic parts such as impellers, diffusors, and pump housings with widely variable dimensions that must withstand intense suction, pressure, and temperature fluctuations.
In the medical industry, HP is partnering with Parmatech, an ATW Company, to expand mass production of parts for customers including OKAY Industries, Primo Medical Group, and others. Parmatech is a leader in metal injection molding and has been a metals manufacturing pioneer for more than 40 years, specializing in producing low-cost, high-volume metal parts for the medical and industrial sectors.
In first half of 2019, customers will be able to upload 3D design files and receive industrial-grade parts in large quantities from the new Metal Jet Production Service. The parts will be produced by HP partners GKN Powder Metallurgy and Parmatech. For more information and to register for access to the HP Metal Jet Production Service go to HP.com/go/3Dmetalparts.
Commercial HP Metal Jet solutions will be offered at under $399,000 and begin shipping in 2020 to early customers and with broad availability in 2021. Reservations for customers to pre-order HP Metal Jet systems are available today.
