HP Inc has unveiled a series of innovations and partnerships designed to help its customers accelerate their “digital manufacturing journey”.

The company is expanding its 3-D printing portfolio with the new Jet Fusion 5200 Series 3-D printing solution for customers scaling up to full production.

It is also expanding its strategic alliances with BASF, Materialise and Siemens; and it is launching the HP Digital Manufacturing Network — a “global community of proven large-scale 3-D printed parts providers”.

Christoph Schell, president of 3-D printing and digital manufacturing at HP Inc (www8.hp.com), said: “The Fourth Industrial Revolution is one of the most transformative forces in our lifetime.

New technology innovations will be required, new partnership models will emerge, and new modes of doing business will unfold.

"The broadening of our portfolio with the new Jet Fusion 5200 Series 3-D printing system, coupled with expanded industrial alliances and our new Digital Manufacturing network, is an important accelerator of our digital manufacturing journey.”

HP has also introduced a new certified thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). UltraSint was developed by BASF to expand the range of final-part applications for customers using the new Jet Fusion 5200 systems.

It has been formulated for flexible and elastic parts and complements HP high re-usability PA-12, PA-12 Glass Beads and PA-11 materials.

Numerous companies in the automotive, industrial, consumer goods and manufacturing sectors are investigating new applications for the Jet Fusion 5200 systems, including Avid Product Development, BASF, Jaguar Land Rover, Kupol, Materialise, Sculpteo, Prodartis and Vestas.

Ben Wilson, additive-manufacturing manager at Jaguar Land Rover, said: “The transition to an autonomous connected electric and shared future and the journey to Industry 4.0 are central to our future strategy.

“Our work with HP to advance our knowledge and in-house capability in 3-D printing has been an important step towards the production of high-quality parts to support current and after-market customers.

"The continuation of this collaboration through the early use of the new HP Jet Fusion 5200 3-D printing platform will help us to better understand opportunities to unlock new application areas while supporting investigations to advance the productivity, efficiency and reliability of the technology.”