The first Multi Jet Fusion 3D printers by HP are already sold and ready for work. In an interview with CRN HP CEO Dion Weisler spoke about some details of the new 3D printers – one of these details was that HP produces parts for its Multi Jet Fusion 3D printer with the 3D printer.
Years ago the Rep Rap organisation started with their 3D printers – most of the printers had the possibility to recreate all plastic parts themselves. It’s quit interesting that HP uses nearly the same method as Rep Rap to produce parts of its printer. Dion Weisler said in the interview that HP uses 3D printing because it’s cheaper than conventional plastic moulding.
The HP printer may be a competitor to conventional techniques because it’s cheaper than all comparable 3D printers from competitors. At the same time it costs only the half of comparable printers and it can use different materials from different manufactures. With all these advantages HP wants 3D printing to become an alternative to conventional techniques.
The best example I can give you is our own 3-D printing products where half the bill of materials is printed by our 3-D printers. So the printers are actually printing themselves. We are not doing that to be cute or because we can. We are doing it because the economics make more sense for us to print those parts on 3-D printers than it does by using traditional injection molding.
And HP has good reasons to get onto this market – it is over 12 trillion dollars big.
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