PHOTO: OSU alumna Tim Weber of HP Inc. in Corvallis, Oregon talks about HP 3-D printers, in his keynote address at a local technology festival for da Vinci Days, as shown in the local newspaper article by Jim Day, "The 3D printing revolution underway: HP expert discusses technology in Whiteside talk," Gazette-Times, Jul. 15, 2017, p. A1-A2 posted online Jul. 14, 2017 as "The 3D printing revolution: Tim Weber discusses technology in Whiteside talk". For more information see the trade publication article by Lucas Mearian, Senior Reporter, Computerworld, "manufacturing: HP said it has 30 reseller partners in North American and Europe," computerworld.com posted May 8, 2017 that says, "After announcing its first revenue from sales, HP Inc. today said it is now focused on scaling up its Multi Jet Fusion 3D printing business that it believes will rival standard manufacturing technologies, such as injection molding. . . . HP claims its Multi Jet Fusion 3D printers will enable mass production of parts through additive manufacturing (3D printing), instead of rapid prototyping, for which the technology is typically used. The new printers are unlikely to be used to produce millions or billions of production parts. Think, instead, in terms of hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of parts, HP said. The printer works by first depositing powder (about 100 microns thick, or the thickness of a standard sheet of paper) onto a print bed using a print bar that looks like a scanning bar on a typical 2D printer. The print bar has 30,000 nozzles spraying 350 million fusing agent droplets per second in specific patterns as it moves back and forth across a print platform." Also see, official HP site, "Introducing the HP Jet Fusion 3D printing solution - New 3D printing technology for a new era in manufacturing," hp.com accessed Jul. 17, 2017 linked to from top Google search for "HP 3-D printer open platfrom standards".
Local boy made good Timothy Weber gave Corvallis a taste of the future Friday night with a 40-minute talk on 3D printing to kick off the summer da Vinci Days program.
Weber, a Corvallis native who received his doctorate in engineering from Oregon State University, called himself "head nerd" of HP Inc.'s 3D printing team. . .
Weber emphasized that HP "is not a materials company," and that it is working with high-wattage international partners such as BMW, Nike, BASF and Siemens on an open-platform basis that all but assuredly will accelerate the pace of innovation -- and change.
About two-thirds of the way into the lecture Weber lost this reporter, when he launched into a discussion of HP's multijet fusion technology. It didn't get any better when he moved on to fabrication of functional polymer nanocomposites.
Then he reeled it back in when he started talking about the things 3D printers will be able to do with color, elasticity and texture. His example was an automobile tire whose tread would be color-coordinated. When you see red peeking through the tires, you know it's time to head to the tire store. No more pulling quarters out of your pocket to measure tread depth! . .
(Quoted from Jim Day, "The 3D printing revolution underway: HP expert discusses technology in Whiteside talk," Gazette-Times, Jul. 15, 2017, p. A1-A2 posted online Jul. 14, 2017 as "The 3D printing revolution: Tim Weber discusses technology in Whiteside talk")
Tim Weber, after graduating with his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Oregon State University, joined my group at HP in the 1990's where I shared with him my knowledge of the HP Way that I had learned from experience over the prior two decades. Everyone who dealt with Weber saw him as being very smart and capable. It has been heartening to hear of his progress in the 3-D printer product arena. An interesting coincident is that the HP Corvallis Site was first envisioned and ordered built in the 1970's by a 1954 graduate of OSU John Young, to house the rapidly growing HP handheld programmable calculator business, which soon built HP's first portable personal computers. The first Corvallis HP building was occupied shortly before John Young became the first non-founder of HP to be named the President and CEO of Hewlett-Packard (the original HP was recently split into four companies, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, HP Inc., Agilent Technologies, and Keysight Technologies.)
As a natural outrowth of the portable calculator and computer businesses, in the 1970's HP invented the first battery operable inkjet printers, which grew rapidly in sales after personal computers became common and the demand for printing rose exponentially. See previous post History of HP inkjet printers in American Heritage Invention & Technology (2/19/12) to read the original article text for my magazine article. My personal copy, a scanned PDF that is intended only for fair use under the copyright law is at this link: Thomas Kraemer, "Printing Enters the Jet Age, How today's computer printers came to eject microscopic dots with amazing precision," American Heritage Invention & Technology, Spring 2001, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 18-27 (PDF)
In my previous post Year 2016 in review - 11 years of blogging - Am I too blind to blog? *12/24/16) I also quote from related newspaper articles of interest by Staff, "Future of 3-D printing is topic of forum," Gazette-Times, Nov. 1, 2016, p. A2 and a follow-up article by Anthony Rimel, "HP Plans 3-D printers for manufacturing," Gazette-Times, Nov. 3, 2016, p. A2, online as, "HP exec says company's 3-D printers will lead to new industrial revolution," posted Nov. 3, 2016 that mentions Tim Weber, global head of 3-D materials and advanced applications for HP Inc. talking about. Clearly, he has adopted the HP founder's strategy that avoided dependence on the retail market, like inkjet printers ended up in, by focusing on 3-D printers and materials for manufacturers.
Also, my previous post HP 3-D printers praised by Jim Cramer CNBC Wall Street reporter (7/24/16) links to my letter to the editor (Thomas Kraemer, "High hopes for HP," Corvallis Gazette times Mid-Valley Sunday edition, July. 24, 2016, p. A10) and it preceded two related newspaper articles of interest by Staff, "Future of 3-D printing is topic of forum," Gazette-Times, Nov. 1, 2016, p. A2 and a follow-up article by Anthony Rimel, "HP Plans 3-D printers for manufacturing," Gazette-Times, Nov. 3, 2016, p. A2, online as, "HP exec says company's 3-D printers will lead to new industrial revolution," posted Nov. 3, 2016 that mentions Tim Weber, global head of 3-D materials and advanced applications for HP Inc. talking about. Clearly, he has adopted the HP founder's strategy that avoided dependence on the retail market, like inkjet printers ended up in, by focusing on 3-D printers and materials for manufacturers. Tim's PhD in Mechanical Engineering makes this a perfect cap to his career.
PHOTO: Given that the first non-founder CEO of Hewlett-Packard, John Young, graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in electrical engineering in 1954, and given his strategy was to locate HP divisions near universities to help recruit engineering talent, it made sense to move the Hewlett-Packard calculator factory and research lab to Corvallis, Oregon in 1975, which was first reported in the local Corvallis newspaper story by John Atkins, "H-P executive predicts 700 new jobs," Gazette-Times Aug. 8, 1974, p. 2. (See previous posts HP breakup making Bill and Dave spin in their graves (8/11/15) , Don't Cali-fornicate Oregon and HP annexation history (6/14/12) and HP and Corvallis newspaper history (3/11/09) about the move of the Hewlett-Packard calculator division to Corvallis in 1975)
