HP appears to be making a move to generate more 3D print activity on their equipment.
In a long press release this week, the company announced a number of different improvements, mostly around the materials capabilities of their MJF systems. This equipment, typically used for production part purposes, will benefit from the lower cost of their highly reusable new HP 3D HR PA 11 Gen2 powder, as well as several other new material partnerships.
But buried deep in the release was something about a new program they call the “HP Additive Manufacturing Network”, or “AMN”. This caught my eye, and I looked for further information.
I couldn’t find much, aside from the description in the release:
“The new HP Additive Manufacturing Network (AMN) Program is designed to accelerate growth and maximize business potential for part providers around the world. The program is an inclusive, dynamic, data-driven framework that actively supports and delivers tangible rewards to part providers based on their performance, capabilities and collaboration, and ensures that active participation is recognized.”
This seems to be a manufacturing network, similar to Proto Labs, Shapeways and Xometry, although probably only with HP equipment and materials.
Aside from the recently re-launched Shapeways, this business model has been pretty successful. Both Proto Labs and Xometry have been at or near the top of our weekly valuation leaderboard, showing that investors are keen on this type of business. It’s not surprising: they sit at the center of networks of independent operators that run the actual equipment. It looks like HP wants to do much the same thing.
It’s a low risk strategy, as it is the independent operators that take the risk of investing in equipment and materials, not HP themselves. HP’s prominence in the marketplace should attract a significant amount of business, which can then be routed to these participants. Meanwhile, HP sells both equipment and materials to those same participants.
The presence of the AMN would also benefit prospective users of HP’s MJF technology. As a production process, it takes some commitment and a minimum amount of work to consider acquiring the technology. For some, that might be too much, locking them out of MJF. But with the AMN, these customers need only order parts and someone else will run their MJF gear to produce the items.
Both Xometry and Proto Labs have both grown significantly using this business model, so perhaps HP is looking for something similar.
Via HP
