Today HP launched MultiJet Fusion 3D printing, and its Sprout hardware
HP has finally unveiled its new 3D printing technology for industry – ’10 times faster than technology that’s already out there’, partly thanks to its giant, single-pass, ‘pagewide’ printhead technology.
Powder-based, the process places 350 million, 21 micron drops of binder onto each layer with each print pass, forming full colour parts.
Also launched was the company’s Sprout hardware, a 5-in-1 device that sits over and above a computer monitor, that houses a scanner/projector that also acts as a mouse/keyboard/touchpad, allowing you to manipulate documents on both the monitor desktop, and the physical one in front of you.
//www.youtube.com/embed/Mp6oLZdIHTs?list=UUCQsxghGcSyzpDqAP3c50ig
The HP product launch as it happened:
2.27pm – Sales experience will be ‘curated’ – Sprout will be on sale from 9 November, in time for the Holidays
2.24pm – Wish I’d bought another Double Decker 🙁
2.20pm – Some videos of creatives using Sprout for various purposes… They’re creative. They don’t like tech, ya get me? But Sprout lets them work in a digital medium, but in an analog manner. You get it? Good.
2.18pm – What the boss man said. He’s right you know.
Most interesting thing about this HP business? the open platform for materials dev. Yes. More of that
— al dean (@alistardean) October 29, 2014
2.15pm – Software Apps specifically for Sprout – including Skype, Evernote, and, umm, Martha Stewart… Developers can get cracking right after the event.
2.13pm – Some back slapping for Brad The Engineer who made Sprout possible – much deserved.
2.12pm – Remote collaboration – video conference on the vertical screens, exact same changes made on the projected desk.
2.11pm – Five devices in one (Scanner/projector/mouse/keyboard/touchpad).
2.10pm – ‘Who are the creators? 57 per cent of the population by number’.
2.08pm – A nice video showing lots of hands-on manipulation of documents, no keyboard or mouse to be seen. Touchscreen monitors are still persevered with…
2.03pm – It’s Sprout! A strange sort of monitor stand with a scanner and projector built in. Are keyboards and touch screens a thing of the past now?
2.02pm – ‘To unlock the power of 3D printing we need simpler means of producing content’… A scanner? Go on? Tell us you’ve got a scanner?
2pm – And with that, it’s over from the 3D printing side of things. Although we are expecting another product, so hang on…
1.59pm – Colour is ready out of the box, which for now we’ll assume is multi-colours in a single part because of the process. Material properties like different textures will be developed down the line
1.57pm – Shapeways CEO is now on stage, talking about the sensitivity of price – even small price discounts see increases in its customers
1.55pm – The machine’s up on stage, not a bad looking thing – curvy
1.52pm – Autodesk’s Carl Bass is going to be on stage, and Terry Wohlers, talking about the direction of 3D printing.
1.51pm – Hints that it’ll be open source, so others can develop materials for it
1.50pm – We weren’t too wide back of the mark back in June
1.47pm – 350 million drops per second, 21 micron precision
1.46pm – It’s powder-based, with page-wide distributed layering – a massive single sweeping printhead.
Intriguing footnote in the HP MultiJetFusion PR. 10x speed is an internal comparison to sintering and FDM.
— al dean (@alistardean) October 29, 2014
1.45pm – ’10x faster prints, increased quality prints, and cost effective.’
1.44pm – If you’re playing the ‘Industrial Revolution’ drinking game, then you’ll have fell off your stool by now.
1.43pm – Change of hosts… too slow to take his name, so I’ll just carry on like this didn’t happen… He seems like a big deal though.
1.42pm – ‘2D printing expertise into 3D printing… it’s MULTI JET FUSION’
1.39pm – Now another video, I can feel the tension building above the piano riffs. It’s the concept of Blended Reality.
1.37pm – “Today’s 3D printing is slow”… come on… show us it…!
1.35pm – “Human hands have powered human growth”. Don’t think they’re going to launch new hands though.
1.34pm – Concept = ‘blended reality’ – two new products being announced today!
1.33pm – The company is looking to the future – which categories are HP going to enter? This is just coquettish teasing…
1.31pm – A brief history lesson, a reference to the business splitting into two, and some general chit-chat… It’s not quite the moon landings yet.
1.30pm – We’re off. Some video about a kid who’s lost his iguana is rolling.
1.28pm – Can’t wait any longer, the Double Decker is out of the wrapper. Other chocolate bars are available.
1.26pm – Take your seats…
1.24pm – The funky background music is something truly to behold. It’s like Masters At Work started doing lift music…
1.17pm – Welcome to the party, it’s a bit like watching the moon landings this, knowing that elsewhere there are copious journalists and bloggers sacrificing a decent lunch hour of the sake of covering a new hardware release.
We’ve ran the tests, have logged into the HP live-cast and are ready to rumble.
Oh. And we’re eating a lunch of champions, so please don’t mind the chewing/drooling sounds.
Prepped and ready. pic.twitter.com/PjNTWkwD2a
— Stephen Holmes (@swearstoomuch) October 29, 2014
1.15pm – In case you haven’t heard the buzz, HP will shortly be webcasting it’s new, secretive hardware – which everyone is hiding out hopes will be a new 3D printer for industrial use.
There’s a chance that we’ll still be left waiting following this, but – fingers crossed – we’ll have some idea of the direction HP is heading in.
