CORVALLIS, Ore.—Henkel Adhesive Technologies has joined the HP Open Materials and Applications Platform and will work with HP in its 3D Materials and Applications lab to develop customized, industry-specific solutions for HP Multi Jet Fusion customers.
The partnership comes after about a year of dialogue with HP as they were developing their open-platform business model for 3D printing, said Ashok Agarwala, global director, new market development for Henkel.
"They are the experts in their technology from a hardware and software standpoint, and they have a good knowledge base on the material side," Agarwala said. "However, HP recognized that to accelerate the adoption of 3D printing into industrial production, they needed to partner with companies that are experts in materials development."
Henkel has worked with HP in the past as a supplier and in terms of assembly operations, he said. In the next few months, Henkel's technical teams will work alongside HP's teams to establish a rapport and start working on samples of materials for use with HP's 3D printers. Together, they will test various material formulations to find which ones fit the open platform MJF technology.