Swinburne installs cutting edge HP 3D printing system

Swinburne has joined the likes of Nike and BMW, and has become the first Australian university to install a new type of 3D printing technology.

The HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution is the world’s first production-ready commercial 3D printing system, and has been installed at Swinburne’s Hawthorn campus.

Swinburne is the first university in Australia or New Zealand to install the printer, and is HP’s first Victorian customer. Other innovative organizations such as Nike, BMW and Johnson & Johnson have also adopted the new technology.

Workshop Manager in the Faculty of Health, Arts and Design at Swinburne Andrew Tarlinton believes the new printer puts Swinburne students at a great advantage.

“Having the ability to create parts that are essentially finished and ready to implement brings us in line with professional prototyping labs found in many large businesses,” he says.

“Our students will be able to step into jobs already familiar with best practice.”

The HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution allows for faster printing, without losing any detail or accuracy.

The new 3D printer uses a multi-agent printing process, which is more efficient than the traditional 3D printing method of melting plastic.

This means it is not only much faster than previous models, but it is also more economical and resourceful.

“With the new technology we can produce prototypes at speed, while maintaining a high level of detail and accuracy,” says Mr Tarlinton.

“The HP printer also recycles 85% of the powder (excess printing material) left in the build chamber to produce more components, bringing down the cost per part.”

President of HP’s 3D Printing Business Stephen Nigro declares the printer is breaking new ground in manufacturing industry.

“The new HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution delivers a combination of speed, quality, and cost never before seen,” he says.

“Businesses and manufacturers can completely rethink how they design and deliver solutions to their customers.”

The The HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution combines speed, quality and cost efficiency.

Mr Tarlinton believes the new technology will allow students and staff to work with more innovative and intricate designs.

“It will give us expanded capability to be able to print complex structures with stronger, thinner components,” he says.

“It will allow us to prototype working parts that will enable better design evaluations.”

The printer has been installed in the Design Workshop at Swinburne’s Hawthorn campus.

If you would like to learn more about Swinburne’s Design and Manufacturing courses, please visit the School of Design webpage.

To learn more about the new 3D printing technology, you can view the HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution webpage.

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