HP has big claims and bigger hope for it's Fusion Jet 3D printer with which it entered the 3D printing space. HP or Hewlett Packard has made a fortune in the 2D printing business with its Inkjet and Laser printers, but never entered the 3D printing space, though the technology has been there since 1939. With the launch of its Fusion Jet 3D printer it made it clear that HP's technology in 2D space can be applied to the 3D realm as well.
The major advantage of this technology is we can control the property of the printed mode with using different combination of agents and materials, also the ability of precisely print one voxel (volumetric pixel) with HP's proven technology in 2D printing allows you to print in such high defination that you are used to seeing in 2D prints from HP printers.
HP is right to making the claims it has for the printer but will need some time to polish the technology in 3D printing. But use of technology available in your normal 2D printer has allowed it to scale it both up and down and provide faster and better 3D printing at a affordable cost.
Have a look at what HP has to say about its Fusion Jet Printers (Yeah it does seem a bit far fetched but with the technology HP's using it is not that far away):
The technology behind HP's fast and multi-color printing 3D fusion jet printer is based on a old IP that they hold for thermal inkjet printing and you can find the same technology being used in many of HP's 2D printers as well. They are a lot different from the Stereolithography or Material extrusion methods but quite similar to the laser sintering method without the laser.
Laser sintering method spreads a layer of metal powder which is then sintered by precision lasers and then another layer of powder is spread onto it. The next layer when sintered is fused to the lower layer. This curing of material powder is attained in the fusion jet without the laser but a heat source and chemicals.
The Fusion jet spreads one layer of material and then a print head (thermal inkjet array) is passed onto it which prints chemicals across the entire print area. The print head has a dense no of nozzles per inch, with the total no. of nozzles on the entire print head being close to 30,000. This provides the highest resolution in 3D printing industry of 20 micron precision.
They use two types of chemicals - fusing agent and detailing agent with an option for a coloring agent. When they are heated by a energy source the fusing agent fuses the material while the detailing agent is used in areas where the effect of fusing agent has to be either removed or amplified. This allows to have nice surface finish with curves and sharp edges. This also allows to have a texture on the printed surface. The nozzles are capable of printing 3 million drops per second of such agents making it 10x more faster than any technology available so far.
HP is right to making the claims it has for the printer but will need some time to polish the technology in 3D printing. But use of technology available in your normal 2D printer has allowed it to scale it both up and down and provide faster and better 3D printing at a affordable cost.
Have a look at what HP has to say about its Fusion Jet Printers (Yeah it does seem a bit far fetched but with the technology HP's using it is not that far away):
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