HP plans expansion towards metal additive manufacturing

At their Innovation Summit in Barcelona, HP revealed their latest advances in additive manufacturing, unveiling their plans for 3D metal printers. While they have recently entered the top 5 list of the largest vendors of industrial 3D printers, they could well be on their way to outranking any competition with an expanded offer through the introduction of metal 3D printing technology.

It has been a few years since HP developed their Multi Jet Fusion technology and two years since they began marketing their machines that are able to create quality parts from a polymer powder. At the beginning of the year, they presented their new full-color HP Jet Fusion 300/500 series, which should be delivered soon. The manufacturer has also offered more 3D color printing options for R&D teams, design studios, contractors, universities and other research institutes.

HP’s new full-color printer

Expanding into the metal additive manufacturing market

There seems to be no end in sight for HP with this technology, a desire confirmed by the words of Ramon Pastor, Vice President and General Manager of HP Multi Jet Fusion: “We will do an announcement on metal printing later this year and unveil to the world what kind of technology we will use. There are several metal technologies out there and we will share which we have zeroed in on to move forward and invest further.” HP should be entering into the metal additive manufacturing market within a few months, joining competitors like Stratasys. This move should definitely have an effect on the growth of the metal 3D printing industry, a growth that has already been confirmed by a study by Global Market Insights, which explained that the metal additive manufacturing market should increase by 27% by 2024.