HP Reveals 3D Printing Expansion Plans via Resellers and Service Bureaus

Today at Rapid + TCT, HP Inc. demonstrated its Jet Fusion 3D Printing solutions and revealed how it plans to scale its business. This includes the official unveiling of the new HP Partner First 3D Printing Specialization program, an  array of installations with manufacturing service bureaus and product design firms, and more than a dozen new HP 3D Printing Reference and Experience Centers across the U.S. and Europe.

HP also announced the addition of Henkel AG & Co. to its open ecosystem for 3D printing materials and applications. HP's Jet Fusion 3D Printing solution is a production-ready commercial 3D printing system that the company claims delivers superior quality physical parts up to 10 times faster and at half the cost of current 3D print systems.

"Building on our experience of more than 500,000 Multi Jet Fusion-produced parts, we are now scaling our 3D printing business to the next level. Today we are expanding our solutions availability through new resellers and service bureau partners, opening new experiential facilities for customers and partners, and widening our open 3D printing materials ecosystem," said Stephen Nigro, president of 3D Printing, HP Inc. "We are honored that industry-leading companies such as BMW, Jabil, Johnson & Johnson, Nike and dozens more are looking to the innovations and economics delivered by HP and our partners to help reinvent their businesses for the digital manufacturing revolution."

To meet growing international customer demand, HP formally unveiled its new global reseller program — the HP Partner First 3D Printing Specialization program — with more than 30 certified partners. The program is initially focused on North America and Europe. They include Fast Radius, Forecast3D, Go Proto, Materialise, ProtoCAM, Proto Labs, Shapeways, Sigma Design and 3D Prod.

HP, in collaboration with its partners, is also opening more than a dozen 3D Printing Reference and Experience Centers across North America and Europe to enable companies to engage with HP's Jet Fusion 3D Printing solutions in production-level scenarios. Testing and qualification of new 3D printing use-cases will be enabled in controlled environments, providing customers a simpler path to advance from prototyping to full scale 3D production, according to the company.

These centers initially include facilities in Allentown, PA; Alpharetta, GA; Carlsbad, CA; Corvallis, OR; Livonia, MI; Louisville, KY; Manchester, CT; Milpitas, CA; Palo Alto, CA; San Diego, CA; and Vancouver, WA in the United States; and Raon-l'Etape, France; Leonberg, Germany; Eindoven, The Netherlands; Barcelona, Spain; and Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Finally, the company announced that Henkel has joined HP's ecosystem of global materials experts, including Arkema, BASF, Evonik, and Lehmann & Voss, to support HP's Open Platform for 3D printing materials and applications. HP says its 3D printing platform model helps expand the availability of new materials and address a broader set of applications, lower materials and development costs, drive speed and performance improvements, and create new possibilities for part properties that address specific industry needs.

Henkel is a global supplier of high-performance adhesives used in critical applications such as medical device, electronic device, and transportation vehicle assembly. It plans to work with HP in its Open Materials and Applications Lab in Corvallis, OR, to expand its product range. Henkel is focusing development on providing novel powder materials for use with HP Jet Fusion 3D printers.

For more information, visit HP Inc.