TECH FRONT The Latest Research and Development News in Manufacturing and Technology
HP shows 3D printing system at RAPID, ready for production
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D printing giant HP Inc. in May entered the additive manufacturing market, showing a line of 3d printers at SME’s RAPID event in Florida.
HP introduced the HP Jet Fusion 3D 3200 and 4200,
saying they would be delivered late this year and in 2017, respectively. HP has repeatedly declined to comment on exactly when the printers would be delivered.
The software will support multiple file formats, includ-
ing 3MF. HP helped develop 3MF. The company said its Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution is the first printer to be fully compliant with the standard. HP pointed to the voxel–essentially the 3D equivalent of
a 2D pixel in traditional printing–as the cornerstone of the MJF system. The ability to transform part properties at the voxel level gives the user expanded control over applica- tions, colors, and materials. The MJF system can print more than 340 million voxels per second, which HP said offers “breakthrough economics.”
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Stephen Nigro, President of HP’s 3D Printing division, at RAPID 2016.
The firm said its printers cost half of others on the
market, with the 3200 starting at $130,000 and the full end-to-end solution (the 3200 printer and processing sta- tion) starting at $155,000. The company also asserted its printers are 10 times faster than what is currently available. “We want to change how the world designs and manufac-
tures parts. We want to lead the next industrial revolution,” Stephen Nigro, president of HP’s 3D printing business, said. Nigro emphasized the openness of the platform, espe- cially with regard to materials. HP partnered with Arkema, BASF, Evonik and Lehmann & Voss to create a “mate- rial app store” that will allow users to print in a variety of materials–plastic and ceramic for now, though HP has a roadmap for metal and glass.
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New manufacturing hub to focus on sensors
he newest addition to the National Network for Manu- facturing Innovation (NNMI) will be focused on smart sensors. The hub was announced in June and will be
managed by the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition, of which SME, the publisher of this magazine, is a partner. The US Department of Energy will oversee the project. The new institute’s goal is “to spur advances in smart sensors and digital process controls,” the Obama adminis- tration said. The group will have $140 million in public and private investment The institute also will have five regional centers across
the US. They will be led by UCLA, Texas A&M, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Pacific Northwest National Labora- tory and North Carolina State. The institute’s corporate partners include ExxonMo-
bil, US Steel, Goodyear, Rockwell Automation, Alcoa, and Southern California Edison.
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MIT solar cells are as light as a soap bubble
esearchers at MIT developed a solar cell so thin that it can rest on top of a soap bubble without pop- ping it. Though years away from being commercially
viable, the development shows a new approach to mak- ing solar cells that could help power the next generation of portable electronics. The new process is described in a paper in the journal Organic Electronics.
Summer 2016
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