Why HP’s 3D printing technology is a game-changer in manufacturing

HP has developed a unique voxel 3D printing technology used in the company’s portfolio of 3D printers, featuring the 5200 and 5400 series. The HP Multi Jet Fusion’s voxel control technology is not only transforming how we make things, it’s also revolutionizing the way we design them. Voxel control allows designers to break objects down to the smallest nuances of shape and function and apply them with microscopic precision.

Voxels add control to HP 3D printing

In short, voxels are 25-micron building blocks, roughly one quarter of the thickness of a human hair. Voxels add more detailed control to 3D printing, such as pinpointing a specific mechanical property, even to a specific segment of the 3D-printed part.

To produce a 3D object using voxels, HP’s Jet Fusion 3D printers start by laying down a super-thin sheet of material less than the thickness of a sheet of paper. A printhead equipped with 30,000 nozzles then swoops over the material, precisely applying chemical fusing and detailing agents to form the shape of the object being created, and then applying infrared heat at very specific levels to make them fuse and do things like rendering objects in full color.

HP 3D printing up to 10 times faster

But it’s what’s going on inside this mix of materials that’s the real game-changer. HP’s printhead puts out 340 million of these voxel building blocks per second. The technology helps produce objects 10 times faster than other 3D printing methods, If you’re familiar with other manufacturing methods, such as injection molding, then this is a great benefit when producing larger batches. But unlike injection molding, each 3D printed part can have a unique geometry.

Improved product development with HP 3D printing

A good example of leveraging both print speed and flexibility is the Swedish company Ochno.  It’s a Swedish startup that prepares commercial buildings with next-generation technology infrastructure, such as climate control and LED lighting. One of Ochno’s key components for their smart building infrastructure is a power hub. This was designed and 3D printed by the Swedish service bureau Digital Mechanics. By 3D printing their prototypes for the power hub, Ochno has increased both production speed and quality of their prototyping as well as short-series production. 

”The reason we chose 3D printing and Digital Mechanics is the focus on speed to market and production quality of our prototypes. In less than a week, we can go from idea to final prototype. And when we show our prototypes to a customer, the quality is so good they think it’s the real product.”
Olof Ermis, CEO, Ochno