HP hasn’t been terribly relevant for a while but they haven’t thrown in the towel just yet. They are pushing the envelope in the 3D printer world. First they released the Multi Jet Fusion 3D printer, and now they have announced the Metal Jet 3D metal printer.
According to HP, Metal Jet is a “voxel-level binder jetting technology” that’s up to 50 times more productive than existing 3D printing solutions. It also features four times the nozzle redundancy and double the printbars of the competition. Basically, it can be potentially even cheaper and more efficient than what’s currently available.
The company is already partnering with GKN Powder Metallurgy and Parmatech to build shipping parts, and its current customers include Volkswagen, Wilo, Okay Industries and Primo Medical Group. VW is currently using the technology for customizable components like key rings and name plates, but eventually it plans to use it for more significant components like mirror mounts and gearshift tops. And, as you’d expect, Metal Jet could play a major role as VW gets into electric cars.
HP expects the Metal Jet printers to be available starting in 2020 for about $400,000. Yikes.
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