HP 3D Printer – The Masterstroke from the Ace Printer Manufacturer
Almost a year and a half passed since ace printing and technology brand Hewlett Packard announced openly about its plan to enter 3D printing market. At last, the wait for the move is over. Just days before HP came with its first ever 3D printers.
This 3D printer is named HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution and as per the company, the initial two models launched now are basically targeted for 3D printing companies and prototype making model shops. The two products are supposed to hit the consumer market at the end of this year or in the very first quarter of 2017. The prices starting from $130,000, both the printers have received widespread attention from several industry giants including sports brand Nike and automaker BMW. While Nike sees the real scopes with the new solution for adding personalized touches to its shoes and athletic wear, BMW is keen on using the solution to make better prototypes.
HP’s Vision in 3D Printing
HP having expressed its ambition to lead the 3D printing scene in the time to come is planning to gradually increase its foothold and go bigger in 3D printing over time, according to what Shane Wall, HP CTO told to media. With the overwhelmingly large scope of market HP at present is keen to go after two specific purposes now, respectively as modeling and prototyping and secondly manufacturing of small parts in some niche production ambience.
Though at present the two machines will be mainly limited to prototyping down the road in few years, HP is looking forward to offering the mass production 3D printer that can manufacture large amounts of consumer products at ease. Besides offering the custom shape and design of preference HP 3D printers for mass production will also allow custom color options as well.
What Makes HP 3D Printer Different?
The all new 3D printing technology from HP is thoroughly different from the other 3D printing machines presently in use. These HP 3D printers can print by simultaneously using diverse materials and different colors. This unique color and material printing capability will make the technology more valuable for the manufacturing sector.
Only a handful of other 3D printers are capable of using different materials at one go. Now on top of this capability, HP 3D printers can also print them in a variety of colors. This really makes a unique proposition for the all new 3D printer of HP. In the time to come, HP aspires to offer the ability of printing objects with intelligence embedded in them. For instance, a 3D printed object can also have a smart sensor to gather user data from different contexts. With the company’s leading brand image in innovative printing and computing products for decades, the unveiling of such visionary 3D printing products may not be very far.
Impressive Specs that Stay Apart
The specs as revealed regarding the two printers looks awesome. The new HP 3D printer being offered at just $130,000 offers some really stunning specs. At present, it can print black nylon with 340 million 3D pixels per second. The new printer is capable of printing 25% faster than any standard printers and is available in a spectrum of sophisticated color options. The new printer besides ensuring awesome quality and faster delivery also can ensure the very competitive cost of printing as observed by industry experts.
Expectation vs Reality
Finally, let us have a look at the comparative account concerning the expectation from the HP 3D printer and in reality what we got. In all these times since HP declared it is coming to 3D printing scene, the speculation continued concerning the type of printing solutions the company is supposed to launch. As HP decades ago stormed the mass market with easy to use desktop printers, we nearly expected a similar move, a 3D printer for homes and the mass market. But where our inspiring expectations landed upon finally? Yes, this time, HP rather unveiled a bigger solution for industrial users.
But even though our expectations have been terribly upset we should only take this as just the beginning of a series of innovative printing solutions that the company is supposed to unveil in the near future. So, HP still stands as the brand most probable to come up with the truly mass market 3D printer. Already many envision that HP is probably trying to build a smaller less footprint copy of the 3D printing machine that can serve prototyping process in small manufacturing units. This will allow printing small parts creating a new scope for true mini-manufacturing.
Keval Padia is the founder & CEO of Nimblechapps, a fast-growing mobile app development company. The current innovation and updates of the field lures him to express his views and thoughts on certain topics.