HP Highlights Polymers, Metals 3D Printing Options at Formnext

At Formnext, HP Inc. (Booth D41, Hall 12.1) showcased its commitment to sustainable manufacturing, including new materials, tools and expanded software capabilities to accelerate adoption to scale for polymers and metals 3D printing. HP is also highlighting its work with partners and customers including BMW, Decathlon, INDO-MIM and others.

“HP is pushing the boundaries of 3D printing with new innovation, expanded capabilities and a relentless drive to help our partners and customers develop and grow opportunities for more sustainable manufacturing,” says Savi Baveja, president of Personalization & 3D Printing and chief incubation officer, HP. 

HP says its commitment to enabling sustainability within its 3D printing business is underscored by a three-pillar approach: reducing carbon footprint, enabling circularity, and sharing knowledge for more impactful results, the company reports.

“We have three core areas of focus across HP’s 3D printing solutions, capabilities, and materials to help advance more sustainable manufacturing,” says François Minec, global head of 3D Polymers, HP. “From high-reusability materials to help brands reduce net zero waste and minimize carbon footprint to offering take-back programs and new tools to calculate carbon footprint we want to help our customers make choices that help our planet and our people.”

HP is working with materials partners to develop more sustainable, high reusability materials. Together with Arkema, HP is developing bio-based materials made with renewable castor oil and using biomethane to further reduce carbon footprint. With Evonik, HP is developing the 3D High Reusability PA12. Made using renewable energy during production, the material can help reduce the carbon footprint of commonly used PA12 material by 49% without altering its properties.

HP is launching a Carbon Footprint Calculator tool, a software that will allow customers to get a calculation of the carbon footprint of specific printed parts. 

Expanded Partnerships

HP is also showcasing new 3D polymers solutions, advanced automation capabilities, integrated software options, and 3D metals momentum, including:

New innovations in HP’s extensive 3D polymers portfolio include the HP Jet Fusion 5600 Series and the HP Jet Fusion 5000 Solution. HP’s new 5600 Series offers greater repeatability and customization to help reduce development and validation costs. Customers including Prototal and Protolabs are already producing parts using the new solution. The HP 5000 Solution is designed to lower the entry barrier for Multi Jet Fusion technology adoption, catering to new customers looking to assess production volume as well as R&D organizations, and small industrial businesses currently outsourcing final part production.

New partnership with Materialise to drive volume 3D printing to integrate HP’s Multi Jet Fusion and Metal Jet technology into the Materialise CO-AM software platform. This integration offers optimized 3D print job management, real-time machine monitoring, and data preparation, allowing manufacturers to create workflows that improve traceability, quality control, and machine use.

Collaboration with Autodesk to bundle Autodesk Fusion with HP Multi Jet Fusion and Metal Jet printers to provide integrated design and manufacturing solutions.

Live demos of HP’s automation proof-of-concept with Siemens are now available for companies looking to streamline production, increase efficiency and minimize downtime. Demos are being booked in the Barcelona-based DFactory which is a hub for HP collaboration with partners and customers on R&D, application development, and production use cases. See video here.

HP also announces new partnerships with INDO-MIM, Sandvik and Elnik, and additional metals materials with partner GKN Additive.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.