2018 is the 30th anniversary of the HP Barcelona site. For this company with a huge business of personal computers, IT infrastructure, printers, etc., the Barcelona branch has long served as the nerve center and service support center for its printing business. ' Barcelona Responsible for large-area imaging, printing and graphic arts enterprise solutions worldwide. In Europe, we also provide a part of support functions, including financial operations. 'A former employee of HP Barcelona told the interface reporter.
Now, perhaps the huge poster on the Latex printer at the entrance of the factory is more indicative of HP's future ambitions for the future - 'Printing the World'.
The answer to the concept of 'printing the world' is 3D printing. HP's attitude towards this is clear: 3D printing will be one of the main driving forces behind the fourth industrial revolution following steam, electricity and information technology.
In late May, Hewlett-Packard held an innovation summit in Barcelona. The honored guests included both industry analysts and reporters from major technology media. Not surprisingly, 3D printing is a top priority.
3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, builds a digital model file from a computer and then uses plastic or metal-bondable materials to construct actual objects in a manner similar to 'printing.' 3D printing is a hot technology for a while. Direction, become 'tuyere'.
However, people who are skeptical about 3D printing still dominate the mass production of goods. They say that 3D printers are too slow and the cost is too high. Printing a complicated item may take two days.
This is exactly the direction that HP is trying to solve. In 2016, HP released the commercial 3D printers HPJet Fusion 3D 3200 and HP Jet Fusion 3D 4200 using plastic materials, and at the same time introduced a new printing solution, which will be introduced to China in 2017. At the end of 2018, the company will also introduce 3D printing technology using metal materials. The latest action of the company is that on June 16, an industrial-grade 3D printing batch customization center deploying 10 HP 3D printers landed in Foshan, Guangdong.
HP Jet Fusion 3D 4200
But in fact, because of materials, technology, cost and other obstacles, the 3D printing industry has not yet exploded. However, this does not affect HP's strategy. In addition to public opinion, industry applications and growth trends have gradually become clear. The consulting agency IDC has predicted that from From 2016 to 2020, the global 3D printing market has a compound annual growth rate of 24.1%.
This means that by 2020, the revenue of the 3D printing market will exceed $35.4 billion. Analytical data from HP also shows that the global 3D printing market is at a rate of 30% per year, including hardware, software and services. Growth. It is expected that after 2020, 3D printers will provide large-scale services for the manufacturing industry.
'Hewlett-Packard has three core businesses, the first including the PC, mainstream printers, etc. These are our mainstream businesses; the second is the growth business, such as the business of the A3 digital smart copier introduced in the previous paragraph; the third is our future Business, Hewlett-Packard positioning is the growth space for the next five to ten years, 3D printing is a very important part of future business. 'Hewlett-Packard's president of 3D printing Stephen Nigro explains the strategic position of 3D printing in the company, so to see, The reason for the 3D printing business lies in HP's judgment on the future.
At a macro level, cities are expanding, populations are growing, human life is increasing, and product demand is increasing. This means that manufacturing needs more efficient means of production to cope with the global production needs of 8.6 billion people in 2030. More urgently 3D printing is about competing for the next manufacturing high point of competition, that is, 'all digital production'.
'Through the front-end digital design, and then digital printing production - you can achieve on-demand production. This will significantly reduce resource waste and inventory, and the speed will be significantly improved, which is the biggest change that 3D printing will bring. To achieve full digital production, we must work closely with the designers to design specific applications. ' HP CTO Shane Wall told the interface reporter, in his view, automotive, aerospace and sports medical is currently the ideal 3D printing application direction.
For example, in the footwear industry, in general, the shape of the shoe is fixed, and it is made of a large number of different materials. These materials themselves are produced by using different special equipment. After 3D printing is involved in the shoemaking process, the change is After obtaining customer data through laser scanning, sensor and motion test, you can design a personalized midsole suitable for the left and right feet of the customer. The final design file is sent to the 3D printer to make the sole. About a few hours later, a pair A new custom shoe for a person's 'foot' was born.
Hewlett-Packard believes that the entire manufacturing industry, worth US$12 trillion, is undergoing a digital transformation from top to bottom, and their move to 3D printing is a microcosm of the industry and chasing business opportunities. How to distinguish it from other 3D printers? Shane Wall said that HP is currently focusing on 3D printing in industrial production. 'We are very focused on the manufacturing sector.' In the consumer-grade 3D printing field, HP plays more of a behind-the-scenes role.
Fortunately, based on the existing printer business, the company with strong IT background did not lag behind in the competition for future manufacturing. For HP, traditional 2D printing and 3D printing are also not separated, and HP is printing in 3D. The exploration does not start from scratch. 'Traditional printing allows us to take a huge advantage in 3D printing. Our printing business's technology is based on inkjet technology improvements and research and development, including HP's unique page width technology (a kind of realization of more Fast print speed technology). 'Shane Wall said, 'We used the same page width print head on the 3D printer Multi-Jet, which means that our more than 6,000 patents in the field of traditional printing and inkjet technology are all applicable to 3D printing field. '
In 2014, HP announced the successful development of Multi-Jet Fusion (MJF), the core technology of its commercial 3D printing solution. The new technology was born out of HP's flat-print thermal inkjet technology, using a similar 2D printer. On the print crossbar, the crossbar has 30,000 nozzles, and moves back and forth on the printing platform to spray 340 million drops of thermoplastic or other powder material per second, and the material is bonded to the adhesive through the upper layer of energy, and finally formed. Compared with other 3D printing processes (such as FDM, laser sintering), the number of gears produced in the same time is 30 FDM, 70 laser sintering, and 1000 MJF.
According to Hewlett-Packard, multi-jet fusion technology prints physical parts 10 times faster than current 3D printing systems at half the cost of the latter. The minimum accuracy of printing is a 3D measurement unit with a diameter of only 50 microns, which is equivalent to The width of a hair. But limited by the printed material, it is currently compatible with most thermoplastics, including nylon, PA11, PA12, etc.
Obviously, digital manufacturing and 3D printing are actually the intersection of two traditional industries – IT and manufacturing – no company is involved in both industries at the same time. Some companies prefer manufacturing but lack IT experience. Some companies also prefer IT but have no experience in manufacturing industry.
Then, as an HP of the 'IT company', how can we adapt to new changes when we are involved in materials and use completely different 3D printing?
It's not realistic to try to do everything like 2D printing. The advantage of 3D printing technology is that we can redefine the business model from scratch, so we can explore which areas can be profitable and which can't be profitable. From the beginning we decided Materials will not become a point of growth for our interests, because we want to reduce material costs as much as possible and broaden the choice of materials. " Ramon Pastor, vice president and general manager of HP Multi-Jet Fusion 3D printing solutions.
In response to this, their answer is to establish an open material platform. Regarding the operating model of the platform, Ramon Pastor mentioned that the platform can be imagined as an Apple store, customers can choose different materials in the Apple store, different brands. In the middle cube, do not interfere with pricing. 'Without this open platform, all materials are developed and provided by HP, then there will be two things. The material cost will be much higher, and eventually will be encountered in the exploration of innovative materials. Bottleneck. '
At present, BASF, Henkel, Evonik, Arkema, Lehmann & Voss and China Petrochemical Corporation have joined the open material platform.
In addition to the materials, HP also expects to build a good end-to-end ecosystem. The company currently has established partnerships with SAP, Siemens, Autodesk, and other companies, covering enterprise management solutions, 3D modeling, and manufacturing. .
In China, where manufacturing is upgrading and 3D printing is becoming increasingly popular, HP is increasing its investment. Prior to introducing the Jet Fusion 3D series printers into China, HP announced plans to establish a marketing network in Greater China.
Including the first three-dimensional, Shanghai Aurora and other domestic companies to become their partners, these companies involved in the domestic 3D printing market for many years, in Beijing, Chengdu and Guangzhou, deploying 3D printing solutions in cooperation with HP. In addition, HP also The 3D printing display and experience center will be established in 6 cities including Beijing and Hangzhou.
For the new 3D printing center in Foshan, Guangdong, the center is operated by Guangdong Lanwan Intelligent. Currently, 10 HP 3D printing systems have been deployed to provide services for local automotive and consumer goods industries.
For the company's future strategic focus, HP China President Zhuang Zhengsong has a clear attitude. In a media event, he believes that HP's 3D printing should be able to replace traditional manufacturing, rather than staying on 'making muffins'. 'HP put it Defined as the future business, that is to say, HP is not in a hurry to pursue the volume of business. We are waiting to create the integrity of the ecosystem of the 3D industry, and then continue to contribute here.