See Cary Sherburne's commentary on HP annoucement. HP Set to Revolutionize Prototyping/Manufacturing with Jet Fusion 3D.

With Partners Such as Nike and BMW, HP Takes Major Step to Reinvent Prototyping and Manufacturing Industry With First Commercial 3D Printers Based on Open Platform

Today at RAPID, the largest 3D additive manufacturing conference, HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) unveiled the world's first production-ready commercial 3D printing system, marking the next major step in its journey to bring disruptive manufacturing solutions to market. Visit hp.com/go/newsroom for details.

The HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution revolutionizes design, prototyping and manufacturing, and for the first time, delivers superior quality physical parts up to 10 times faster and at half the cost of current 3D print systems. By printing functional parts at the individual voxel level (a voxel is the 3D equivalent of a 2D pixel in traditional printing), HP offers customers an unprecedented ability to transform part properties and deliver mass customization.

News Highlights:

• Simplified workflow and reduced cost for radical prototyping
• Delivery of final parts manufacturing with breakthrough economics
• Open materials and software innovation platform that lowers barriers to adoption and enables new applications across industries

"Our 3D printing platform is unique in its ability to address over 340 million voxels per second, versus one point at a time, giving our prototyping and manufacturing partners radically faster build speeds, functional parts and breakthrough economics," said Stephen Nigro, President of HP's 3D printing business. "The new HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution delivers a combination of speed, quality, and cost never seen in the industry. Businesses and manufacturers can completely rethink how they design and deliver solutions to their customers." 

R&D to Lead the Industry 

The new HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution leverages HP's decades of research and expertise in precision mechanics, microfluidics and materials sciences. But no one company, not even one with HP's unparalleled expertise, scale or assets, can transform the global manufacturing industry alone. HP is proud to have the input and support of leading manufacturers, co-development partners and strategic partners, including Nike, BMW, Autodesk, Jabil, Johnson & Johnson, Materialise, Proto Labs, Shapeways and Siemens. 

"At Nike we innovate for the world's best athletes. We've been using 3D printing to create new performance innovations for footwear for the past several years. Now we are excited to partner with HP to accelerate and scale our existing capabilities as we continue to explore new ways to manufacture performance products to help athletes reach their full potential," said Tom Clarke, President of Innovation at Nike.

"BMW is a pioneer and early adopter of innovative technologies in the field of additive manufacturing, especially for prototyping in concept cars and series-like approval builds. For our future roadmap toward serial part production and personal customization, we see major potential in our partnership with HP to investigate this new kind of 3D printing technology at an early stage. As one of the first partners, we had the chance to see the constant evolution of the machines over time from the first prototype approximately five years ago to the market ready product that is available now," said Jens Ertel, Head of BMW Group Additive Manufacturing Center. 

End-to-End Solution
HP is offering two new 3D printers, designed for rapid prototyping and production.

• The HP Jet Fusion 3D 3200 printer is ideal for prototyping, offering improved productivity and the capacity to grow usage at a lower cost per part.
• The HP Jet Fusion 3D 4200 printer is designed for prototyping and short-run manufacturing needs, with high productivity to meet same-day demands at the lowest cost per part.
• A synchronized set of tools includes intuitive software, an innovative HP Jet Fusion 3D Processing Station with Fast Cooling, and high-quality materials. 

Materials and Software Open Platform to Unleash 3D Printing

Delivering on its open-platform vision announced in 2014, HP and certified partners will collaborate to enable materials innovation and new applications for its HP Multi Jet Fusion Solution, leading to reduced 3D printing costs and faster industry adoption of 3D printing. HP is creating a 3D material app store and is already collaborating with certified partners including Arkema, BASF, Evonik and Lehmann & Voss, with plans to expand the open platform ecosystem over time. 

HP has also collaborated with industry-leading software partners to make the design-to-print process easier and more intuitive. Partners include, Autodesk, Materialise and Siemens. Through its integration with key manufacturing software solution providers, HP is enabling deeper integration of 3D printing into manufacturing processes. HP is a founding member of the industry consortium that developed 3MF, an improved 3D printing file format. The HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution is the first 3D printer to be fully compliant with this industry-leading standard.

Look to the Future
As HP expands its palette of materials and colors, customers will benefit from the ability to transform part properties at voxel level, giving unprecedented control and allowing limitless combinations of applications, colors, and materials with unique and as-yet unimagined properties including:

• The ability to print with embedded intelligence, like sensors in parts, is key to the Internet of Things.
• The printing of parts with embedded information, like invisible traces or codes, will deliver a future of increased security and tracking for reinventing supply chains.

In the future, up to 50 percent of the custom plastic parts for the HP Jet Fusion 3D Printers are expected to be printed and produced with HP Multi Jet Fusion technology versus traditional manufacturing methods. 

Paired with innovation like Sprout by HP, complete digitization of design through production will fundamentally disrupt traditional manufacturing. Digitization and 3D printing can help revitalize regions across the globe that are balancing sustainability with industrial growth. Digitization and 3D printing will reinvent traditional supply chains and create a "just in time" delivery model.

Pricing and Availability 

•     HP is now taking orders at http://www.hp.com/go/3Dcontactus,
•    The HP Jet Fusion 3D 4200 Printer will be delivered in late 2016, with the HP Jet Fusion 3D 3200 Printer following in 2017
•     Pricing for the HP Jet Fusion 3D 3200 Printer starts at $130,000. Pricing for the full end-to-end solution (HP Jet Fusion 3D 3200 Printer and Processing Station) starts at $155,000