HP Inc to sell 3D printers in India from early next year

After sensing tremendous opportunities in both commercial and industrial 3D printing in India, global PC and printer major HP Inc on Friday announced it would start selling its Next-Gen 3D printers in the country by early next year.

According to Sumeer Chandra, Managing Director, HP Inc India, the company is in discussions with various industry stakeholders to help them begin 3D printing in the country.

"We will bring our 3D printers in next 2-3 months to India as part of our commitment to contribute to the India growth journey," Chandra said during an interaction here.

With its Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) 3D printing technology, HP plans to disrupt the $12 trillion global manufacturing market and hopes to push 3D printing's prototyping into developing manufacturing components.

"Initially, the focus will be on sectors like automobile and health care in India but the opportunities are immense," Chandra added.

Although in a nascent stage, the 3D or Additive Manufacturing (AM) is gradually taking shape in India.

In September, HP demonstrated the continued growth of customer demand of its Jet Fusion 3D Printing solutions in Asia Pacific and Japan, announcing the appointment of Metro Systems as the first reseller of its 3D printing solution in Thailand.

This expanded the commercial availability of HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution in Asia Pacific and Japan to Australia, Greater China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

With more than 500,000 high-quality, 3D-produced parts in the last year alone, HP's Jet Fusion solutions lead the industry in speed, economics, quality and reliability.

According to HP CEO Dion Weisler, after producing plastic-based products, the company now aims to sell 3D printers that produce metal objects.

In 2016, HP Inc unveiled the world's first production-ready commercial 3D printing system to bring disruptive manufacturing solutions to markets.

"The HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution will deliver superior-quality physical parts up to 10 times faster and at half the cost of current 3D print systems," Chandra said.

The HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution offers simplified workflow and reduced cost for radical prototyping, delivery of final parts manufacturing with breakthrough economics.

In a bid to accelerate 3D printing for industrial production, HP Inc recently announced integration of its 'Multi Jet Fusion' 3D printer with Siemens' Additive Manufacturing (AM) software module.

HP has also announced the expansion of its 3D-printing portfolio with "HP Multi Jet Fusion 4210 platform".

When it comes to PCs, HP Inc maintained its leadership position in the overall traditional PC market in India with 31.1 per cent share in the third quarter this year.

HP Inc recorded a healthy 30.2 per cent growth (year-on-year) owing to a state-owned education project along with strong consumer demand, said global market research firm IDC.

"It's a proud moment for HP to have consistently sustained market leadership in the personal computing industry. We are at an exciting juncture in our journey as we reinvent ourselves on the basis of design, innovation and customer value," Chandra said.

"PCs are not going anywhere. Smartphones have their relevance but to generate content, people will have to come to PCs and laptops," the top HP India executive said, adding that going forward, the company will plan more investments towards manufacturing in the country.

--IANS

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