News - HP to launch new technology based 3D printers in summer 2014

[HEXUS]

Wants to dramatically change the industry, making equipment faster and cheaper.

Read more.

[cheesemp]

Could help speed up price drops so very interesting development indeed. To be honest though - 8 hours print times don't bother me - I wouldn't do a lot anyway. Its the £800+ purchase price that does!

[crossy]

What do the HP labs need to look at and to improve upon? Well, we have looked at many new 3D printers in the news over the last year or so and the common comments or complaints concern the speed of the devices, their cost and the resolution (or lack or resolution) of the finished printed item.

Speed and cost probably isn't necessarily a showstopper issue for in-house commercial use - just regard it as an "overnight batch" kind of deal, and there's plenty of folks buying them now for prototyping.

Personally, I think the smart idea would be to go for the cost aspect and see if they can't make something more appealing to the man-in-the-street. After all, if Tom down the road has one of those 3D printers, then it's a darn sight easier to justify buying one for the office to the pointy-haired-boss surely?

If memory serves, the Maplin-sold device was £600-700, so surely something in the £400-500 range would be a notable improvement. And that's about the same price as an iPad, so not ridiculous?

That said, I don't think I'll be rushing out to buy one any time soon. But it's interesting though.

[edzieba]

I doubt that the printers will use any 'new technology', but rather take advantage of the Stratasys FDM patents that expired recently.

[shaithis]

I can only imagine how much they will charge for refills!

[herulach]

At £400 with a decent maximum part size I'd be very tempted by this. I've lost count of the number of times I've had to resort to random bits of bent meccano or something when a part printed up on a printer would be much more suitable. Particularly if you could easily embed sex bolts into them.

[Kanoe]

Particularly if you could easily embed sex bolts into them.

Say what? I don't tend to judge what people do in their own home

[Saracen]

An interesting development if HP make a major commitment to this. They have the resources and clout to mainstream this.

But to me this says one thing very firmly .... unless you have a real need for such a printer, such that it justifies jumping in right now and buying .... WAIT. It's a technology in it's infancy. Compare the first colour inkjets, or coloyr lasers for that matter, to those available a few short years later for a demonstration of what I mean, both on price and capability.

[herulach]

Say what? I don't tend to judge what people do in their own home

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_bolt

[Whiternoise]

At £400 with a decent maximum part size I'd be very tempted by this. I've lost count of the number of times I've had to resort to random bits of bent meccano or something when a part printed up on a printer would be much more suitable. Particularly if you could easily embed sex bolts into them.

We've used 3D printed parts at work, just use a tap and it works fine.

EDIT: Oh, I see what you mean.. You might be able to if you can deposit plastic around the bolt.

[ET3D]

I've been looking for a printer, and from what I've read the main problem isn't speed or cost, it's reliability. Cheap printers often don't work out of the box (even when they come pre-assembled), and more expensive ones can break down in a matter of weeks. Users of these printers spend a lot of their printing time printing better parts for these printers.

Until it's possible to buy such a printer, use it out of the box and continue using it for a year without doing anything but supplying new print materials (or occasionally pushing the 'clean' button), this won't become a real consumer product.

[crossy]

An interesting development if HP make a major commitment to this. They have the resources and clout to mainstream this.

Agree 100% - let's hope that we*, sorry "they", don't screw it up by only allowing Windows drivers or some-such stupidity.

* (yes, unsubtle hint who pays my wages at the moment)

But to me this says one thing very firmly .... unless you have a real need for such a printer, such that it justifies jumping in right now and buying .... WAIT. It's a technology in it's infancy. Compare the first colour inkjets, or coloyr lasers for that matter, to those available a few short years later for a demonstration of what I mean, both on price and capability.

Been thinking about this, and I think what's needed is not only a range of colours, but also materials - e.g. temperature resistant. That said, I think la Whitman's estimate of widespread adoption in three years is possibly a bit optimistic - but hey if a lot of folks start looking at this then we could see some really exciting products.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_bolt

Ta for that, just learnt something new. And here was me thinking it was something that you needed for S&M!

[3dcandy]

Sex Bolt - thought that was slang for a real quick s**g!

Could be a great thing if HP make decent forward strides though...

[Saracen]

....

Been thinking about this, and I think what's needed is not only a range of colours, but also materials - e.g. temperature resistant. That said, I think la Whitman's estimate of widespread adoption in three years is possibly a bit optimistic - but hey if a lot of folks start looking at this then we could see some really exciting products.

...

Indeed. Though, what you need very much depends on what you'd use it for. Does whatever you print need to be physically tough? Or as you say, heat resistant? Does colour matter?

I can see how the capability would appeal to a small number of consumers, and clearly, it's be great to have one as a toy, but I struggle to see a wide-spread consumer appeal, because I struggle to think of what I'd use it for, anything like often enough, to justify the layout.

And in saying that, I'm someone that has laser printers, A4 inkjet printers, a couple of A3 inkjets and an A2 inkjet, two dye-sublimation printers, three microdry printers, several film scanners, two general purpose A4 scanners, another sheet-fed auto-duplexing A4 scanner, an A3 flatbed, and that's all at home. And it's not an exhaustive list.

I'm exactly the kind of person that would go for this, IF I could think of what I'd do with it, other than pretty occasionally .... other than charge other people for doing one-off print jobs for them.

[valhar2000]

I'm exactly the kind of person that would go for this, IF I could think of what I'd do with it, other than pretty occasionally .... other than charge other people for doing one-off print jobs for them.

I want a 3D printer to be able to model parts of my computer, print them, and then use them to build things. Sometimes, when you need to fix something around the house, it's not easy to find the part you need at the hardware store, but I'm pretty sure I could model a lot of them in something like Blender or Google Sketchup.

What keeps me from buying one and using it is the price.

[Saracen]

I want a 3D printer to be able to model parts of my computer, print them, and then use them to build things. Sometimes, when you need to fix something around the house, it's not easy to find the part you need at the hardware store, but I'm pretty sure I could model a lot of them in something like Blender or Google Sketchup.

What keeps me from buying one and using it is the price.

Oh sure, there will be some uses, and some people that may use them enough to justify it, and model builders are an obvious example. But for "most" domestic households?