Realizing our additive manufacturing vision: Siemens and HP to take 3D-printing to the next level
What happens when two technology powerhouses with a common vision join forces to elevate additive manufacturing to the next level of innovation? Designers and engineers are poised to get more performance, flexibility and functionality in an end-to-end process to help them realize their creativity and innovation in product development. The time has come!
I’m happy to share with you that Siemens PLM and long-time partner HP Inc. today announced an expanded partnership committed to transforming additive manufacturing from a prototyping tool to an industrial revolution.For our part, Siemens brings innovative software for industrial product design, engineering and manufacturing as well as production line automation and control while HP provides the new and scalable Multi Jet Fusion™ technology and HP Jet Fusion 3D printers. This groundbreaking collaboration will help companies create 3D printed parts that go beyond today’s production limitations and that can be manufactured at greatly increased speeds.
Why are we so committed to revolutionizing additive manufacturing? We believe that additive manufacturing will define the industry over the next ten years and will impact the entire product development process from design to production. For additive manufacturing to be a complete success it needs digitalized computer-aid design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and computer-aided engineering (CAE) technology processes to function and Industrie 4.0 to make the transition. To help additive manufacturing elevate to a viable production alternative for the industry, speed, quality, cost and reliability as they relate to the printing technology must evolve. Designers and engineers will need better control over material characteristics down to the voxel level to take advantage of additive manufacturing which means printing parts with specified multi-materials, textures, density, strength, friction, and electrical and thermal characteristics.
Our additive manufacturing offering will be based on Siemens’ enhanced, flagship design platform NX™ software for CAD/CAM/CAE, and will be paired with HP Multi Jet Fusion™ technology to allow unprecedented print control, including material characteristics down to the voxel-level, at speeds up to ten times faster and at half the cost of current 3D print systems. (A “voxel” is essentially a 3D pixel.) These voxel-level control capabilities will have a massive influence of what designers and engineers can do.
With our expansive suite of production data management and automation technology, we are poised to provide a complete production system which allows customers to integrate HP printing technology intotypical production environment providing Teamcenter as the collaboration platform, MOM-MES technology and real-time SCADA connectivity to the HP printers.
Siemens Portfolio Enabling the Industrialization of Additive Manufacturing
It’s clear that HP’s 3D-printing technology driven by our additive manufacturing software solution will provide engineers a new level of design freedom, customization and speed. We envision that innovative companies will be able develop products that perform better with less weight and more strength and be able to print assembly components as one part with varying characteristics, saving time and money while reducing the chance of manufacturing errors. I believe that not only will these capabilities change how parts are made but more importantly open up new possibilities to reimagine products. As an example, in the future 3D printing of multi-colored parts will enable the production of parts that can visually indicate fatigue and wear.
Revolutionizing the future direction of 3D-Printing: Visual wear indication
Our additive manufacturing software suite supporting the first wave of HP printers is scheduled for global market availability in early 2017. Keep watching this blog for more information about the product launches. In addition to working with HP, we are planning to support multiple additive technologies which are available on the market today in regards to metal and plastic printing.
Learn more about Siemens’ industrialization of Additive Manufacturing.
Read our news release,“Siemens to collaborate with HP Inc. to elevate 3D printing from prototyping to full production,” for more details about today’s announcement with HP and let us know what you think in the “comments” section below.
