HP Inc recently opened the doors to its new 3-D printing and digital manufacturing Centre of Excellence in Barcelona, Spain (www8.hp.com).

Said to be one of the world’s largest and most advanced research and development facilities for next-generation technologies powering the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’, the new centre brings together hundreds of the world’s leading additive-manufacturing experts in more than 150,000ft² of space (about the size of three football fields) — to “transform the way the world designs and manufactures”.

The facility at HP’s Barcelona campus provides a large-scale factory environment to collaborate with customers and partners on digital manufacturing technologies.

Christoph Schell, president of 3-D printing and digital manufacturing at HP Inc, said: “This Centre of Excellence is one of the largest and most advanced 3-D printing and digital manufacturing research and development facilities in the world.

"We are bringing HP’s substantial resources and industrial 3-D printing expertise together with our customers, partners and community to drive the technologies and skills that will further unleash the benefits of digital manufacturing with what is believed to be the world’s largest population of additive manufacturing specialists in one location.”

Specifically designed for collaboration between HP engineering and R&D groups, customers and partners, the new facility integrates “flexible and interactive layouts, co-development environments, and fleets of the latest HP plastics and metals 3-D production systems”.

Companies such as BASF, GKN Metallurgy, Siemens, Volkswagen — and others from the automotive, industrial, healthcare, and consumer goods sectors — will continue collaborating with HP on new 3-D printing and digital manufacturing ‘innovations’ at the Centre.