HP 3D Printing Announcement

[Eddie]

Well, today is the day. Hewlett Packard is expected to make their big 3D Printing related announcement today, and many are in attendance in NY for the event. 3DPrint.com will be live blogging the event as announcements are made. Stay tuned to:

http://3dprint.com/21607/hewlett-pac...-announcement/ - won't be live until around 9:00 AM ET

What do you think they will announce? What do you hope they will announce?

[Feign]

<cynic>They will probably announce that development is ongoing, and that it's very exciting. And give a date for when they will give a date for their next announcement.</cynic>
I hope they actually announce a product, though I probably won't buy it.
I hope in vain that they announce a consumer-level 3D printer that competes on price with existing consumer-level 3D printers... Though even then I probably won't buy it.

Sorry I'm such a hater there, my dislike of the major 2D-printer companies really shows sometimes.

[Marm]

<cynic>They will probably announce that development is ongoing, and that it's very exciting. And give a date for when they will give a date for their next announcement.</cynic>
I hope they actually announce a product, though I probably won't buy it.
I hope in vain that they announce a consumer-level 3D printer that competes on price with existing consumer-level 3D printers... Though even then I probably won't buy it.

Sorry I'm such a hater there, my dislike of the major 2D-printer companies really shows sometimes.

XYZ took their business model and ran with it. The "sell the machine cheap, but overcharge for replacement ink/filament" scam?

I fear the fututre where the DIY/Open source/moddable printers will get pushed to the side by the mega corp's continuing with this model.

[soofle616]

XYZ took their business model and ran with it. The "sell the machine cheap, but overcharge for replacement ink/filament" scam?

I fear the fututre where the DIY/Open source/moddable printers will get pushed to the side by the mega corp's continuing with this model.

I don't see diy/open/etc. printers being pushed out by this sort of model. While it's certainly feasable that large corporations jumping on the 3d printing bandwagon could produce dirt cheap printers with crazy expensive filament, unless there are no other sources for filament the DIY community can still make their own printers either with the designs available at the time or based on their own designs. Arduino and such is not going away (or will be replaced by something if it does), nor are the components like steppers, LCD's, guide rails/bearings and so on. The big corps getting into the game will change things for the average monkey consumer but for people that are already involved in this stuff or have the mental capacity to figure it out on their own, the materials and knowledge are already out there.

[Feign]

I can see there still being a market for "cheap printer, expensive material", I don't see it putting the current business model out of the market.

Mostly the "Cheap printer trap" will probably corner the market on poorly researched gift purchases. But the business philosophy that comes up with the cheap printer trap also cuts every possible corner to keep the price down even further. In this era of instant and honest product reviews, that just will not sell with a large segment of the market.

[MagicStar]

No mention of what HP mean by strength. I would likecomposite strength and no mention of multiple parts in one print to make moving partslike SLS.

[JRDM]

No mention of what HP mean by strength. I would likecomposite strength and no mention of multiple parts in one print to make moving partslike SLS.

It seems they're doing support material in such a way you could do assemblies in place.

This announcement seems like a let-down though. Not that I expect to like HP, but they already had one year, and all they have to show for it is renderings and production starting two years from now.

[Feign]

Looks like the printer is either powder-and-binder or PolyJet. Since Stratasys is involved, I'd bet the latter. Proprietary cartridges for the material, but that's expected from both Stratasys and from HP.

The Sprout seems to be an all-in-one with a Wacom-style tablet and a projector and I guess multiple cameras (though I only see the one above the monitor). I don't see how they get enough camera angles to "You put an object on the bed, it is scanned", most likely just a pre-rendered model that they popped up under the object. On the final product (if there ever is one) you'd likely have to rotate the object a few times to get a good scan.

Still, a projector shining on a highly accurate touchpad is kind of cute. Using some whimsical piece of HP's proprietary software is a huge turnoff from any kind of benefit this could have though. (In my own humble opinion, of course. After all, I only owned an HP laptop once. Theoretically, there could be people somewhere who actually like all that pre-loaded software that you can't reliably stop from loading on start-up and breaks unrelated drivers when it's uninstalled.)

Still, kinda cool in theory, though by the time it makes its way out of renders, it will have to compete with Project Tango...

[bford903]

They're saying the Sprout will cost $1,899.

Have they shown any prints from this multi-jet fusion printer?

[JSenior]

They're saying the Sprout will cost $1,899.

Have they shown any prints from this multi-jet fusion printer?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUkvC59vidw

Potentially very impressive, though it's not a flawless print

(There's a lot of videos on that channel)