The Lessons We Learned Developing the New HP Metal Jet S100 Solution

At HP we believe the possibilities to transform manufacturing with 3D printing are endless. When I rejoined HP last year I was amazed at the progress that’s been made in an industry that was once defined solely by its prototyping capabilities.

But the truth is, when it comes to 3D printing’s ultimate shift from a prototyping to production approach, it feels so close, yet so far. We are making important strides, but we have an obligation to share our learnings and keep pushing to accelerate the pivot to production.

Many people in our industry are familiar with the history behind 3D printing, and the vital early pioneers, like Charles "Chuck" Hull. What's lesser known is HP's unique history in this field. In just seven years, HP went from a complete newcomer trying to enter a competitive market to becoming known as an established market leader trailblazing the future of the industry.

By reflecting on this innovation journey, I hope to illustrate that the progress we see today was never guaranteed.

Thankfully, through the herculean efforts of our incredible partners, customers, and HP teams, we overcame many barriers and challenges along the way. And because of it, we're now positioned to deliver what I believe is the future of this game-changing industry: the HP Metal Jet S100 Solution.

Here’s how:

Developing is Hard. Scaling is Harder.

Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett had a problem. In 1950, HP was producing $2.3 million in products annually. But by 1957, just seven years later, HP made that every month.

As you can expect, this rapid expansion led to more than a few headaches for Bill and Dave to overcome. By 1957, the company had already survived multiple economic downturns, two major wars and several rounds of downsizing.

In a speech to the company from this time, Dave Packard said, "One of the reasons I think we have been fairly successful in surmounting these problems is because we have guided our program with some rather specific objectives."

Through it all, the founders stuck with their mission. The company understood what they did well: electronic instrumentation. And they stuck with it. They built off what they knew and stayed committed to it – even through tough times. In 3D printing, we've similarly worked to stick to our mission: To help customers scale additive manufacturing to production.

Build on Your Heritage

In 3D Printing, we’re in a privileged position to build on HP’s core competencies: cost effective precision mechanics, precision metering and placement of liquid functional agents, high-volume manufacturing, material science and imaging.

When we embarked on the journey to create the HP Metal Jet platform, we recognized our biggest competitive advantages laid in this existing heritage. Our existing ecosystem provided us with an incredible well of knowledge to work with, and that shows up in almost every aspect of the new HP Metal Jet S100 Solution.

To save on costs and increase speed, we used our unequaled expertise in ink technology. Through this unique know-how, our team developed HP Binding Agent. This water-based liquid agent dramatically improves the sintering process and delivers industrial productivity with consistent, reliable and repeatable results.

Delivering this novel agent within our machines are printheads founded on a proven design from HP’s PageWide Web Presses and HP Latex printers. The HP Thermal Inkjet printhead dramatically improves the speed of our binder jetting technology and makes the device competitive with traditional manufacturing methods. This innovation also allows the new Metal Jet S100 Solution to use six printheads with 5,280 nozzles each, a gamechanger for productivity and reliability.

Volatility is the New Normal

When we set out on this mission a few years ago, we could never have imagined the amount of supply chain upheaval the world would be faced with. As any manufacturer can attest, some of the simplest supplies become the source of some of our greatest headaches.

Beginning with the pandemic and continuing with recent economic turbulence, many of the materials and supplies we rely on are in a near-constant state of flux. Overcoming this volatility requires diligence and flexibility from our own team, and the foresight to apply our own HP learnings to helping us solve problems for manufacturing partners and customers.

As a result, companies are reimagining their supply chain strategies to become more resilient, and more appreciative of the power of 3D printing. Many are accelerating plans for integrating 3D printing solutions into their production processes.

From automotive leaders like GM to global cosmetics innovator L’Oréal, companies have turned to HP’s industrial Multi Jet Fusion platform for polymer parts, enabling added agility and quick turns on important products. 3D printing enables previously impossible speed-to-market, and as a result, established players and industry newcomers alike are reconsidering the possibilities of additive manufacturing within their supply chain.

Innovation is a Partnership

As the African proverb says, "If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together."

Nothing could be more faithful to our journey in 3D printing to today's launch. There are so many people instrumental to a project of this magnitude.

There is a long list of teams and people instrumental to a project of this magnitude. Ramon Pastor, the relentless leader of the 3D metals business, Tim Weber, Ivo Torras, each and every member of the HP Metals business who have helped bring this product to life. Our go-to-market leaders Wayne Davey, Meaghan Ferris, Malte Behrens, and Richa Pande, who live and breathe our customer-obsessed mindset.

Along this journey, our partners and early customers have shared our vision for disruption, innovation and sustainability. GKN and Parmatech have contributed significant expertise and helped us recognize the importance of not just printing parts, but printing the right parts. Early customers like Volkswagen and Cobra Golf as well as more recent collaboration with Schneider Electric, Legor Group, Lumenium, and Domin Digital Motion, have helped push the envelope on system capabilities and breakthrough applications.

Through ongoing collaboration and bold innovation, the HP Metal Jet S100 Solution will enable us to reimagine everything from industrials to consumer goods and healthcare to automotive, and as a result truly transform manufacturing.

I could not be more proud in this moment. And I couldn't be more excited for what's to come. Stay tuned.