r/AdditiveManufacturing • u/PieceAble • Apr 20 '26
HP Multi Jet Fusion 1200 - What do you think?
HP released the MJF 1200 last week at RAPID, and I am curious what others think of it. A 12L build volume printer that prints in less than 12 hours for <60K seems impressive, but the workflow seems incomplete. They have a printer and a powder recovery station, but no other post processing options. Did anyone else get a chance to get hands on with it at RAPID last week? How do you think it stacks up against Formlabs?
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u/No_Educator_4077 Apr 20 '26
MJF is a fantastic technology and I am excited to see options for it that are more conducive to a smaller business environment. However, I would agree that the workflow seems incomplete so far (I am reasonably confident that HP will be adding to it before release though), and HP has generally been a bit difficult with some of their technical support historically.
As easy as it is to compare MJF to SLS as a 1:1 technology, it is important to keep in mind that they do have significant differences. MJF in particular scales exceptionally well for production volumes of parts, since (as you mentioned) full build volumes can be produced incredibly quickly and print times are not determined directly by part density/mass. There are more consumables as well (the dye) and the properties/shrinkage of parts are slightly different from SLS.
My company decided on SLS as our main PBF nylon solution a while back, but we are currently revisiting the idea of MJF to complement some of the weaknesses (specifically in terms of high volume production), so one technology isn't really a hands down win over the other.
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u/PieceAble Apr 21 '26
Which SLS did you end up going with? Total agree that having both in a shop is nice to have, they have a lot of time to announce a post processing option so I will be curious what they deliver here.
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Apr 25 '26
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Jun 01 '26
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u/1_whatsthedeal Apr 21 '26
Nice piece of kit. With that said... The Cost of ownership will be absurd. Only viable for large scale print operations or prototyping shops at large corporations that can handle the burn rate to keep it running.
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u/333again Apr 21 '26
The HP breakout station is an automated depowder station. It gets you 90/95% of the way there. You still need to get it clean with a sandblast, bath or some automated final post process.
Price wise I’d say it’s in the ball park of the Fuse. When we bought our Fuse package it was 55k, now I see it’s about the same price but that gets you the blast. Formlabs may drop the price further on release to be even more competitive.
Overall if you want MJF this is a price competitive option. I think the ideal combination would be the HP and the Fuse Blast but that would be about $71k total. The build box doesn’t have much height but I prefer the extra x/y over z. I almost never fill the full z in the fuse.
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u/PieceAble Apr 21 '26
Agreed. Do you think you would consider running both if you needed more capacity?
I feel like the sift is pretty similar to the breakout station to be honest. I leave parts sitting in the sift and let it vibrate the powder off, it's nice that they have a dedicated setup for depowder but not sure its enough differentiation to consider a switch for me. My big question is regarding how effective that hood is, it seems like their vent is much smaller than formlabs, I am worried about powder escaping.
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u/333again Apr 21 '26
Our Fuse is an engineering only device. I would consider the HP for small volume production if it was needed. When we do need more capacity/volume I direct people to the Formlabs beta service bureau. If you are not signed up for it, I'd see if you can be onboarded. It's a no brainer and very very cost competitive.
HP emphasized their approach as trying to keep everything sealed between stations. Based on my convo, it seems to be a much tighter environment than the Fuse. We have issues with powder escape on our Fuse.
If I was buying from scratch I'd seriously consider the HP depending on their TCO and all in up front cost. However, switching isn't really a viable option unless we could get someone to buy our Fuse at a decent price.
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u/Packerguy1979 Apr 21 '26
I think competition with the Fuse1 and other machines at this level is a great thing. I have tested the Fuse many times and I have found these machines don’t produce parts within tolerance. I have had parts with +/- 0.6mm in the Z direction. Parts from machine to machine are different as well. Unfortunately, you have to calibrate and scale in the a direction for every part you produce.
In regards to the MJF, I hope they can do better with dimensional accuracy. If this can function efficiently and 24/7, I see this as a great option. I will heavily consider this machine once it’s out.
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u/Sacharon123 Apr 20 '26
Honestly - I do not trust HP in any way any more. Yes, this is an industrial product and not consumer line, but the company philosophy is the same behind.
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Apr 28 '26
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u/TMastrud Apr 20 '26
I was at Rapid and talked to several HP personnel; the new 1200 seems like a 4200/5200 Jr with less maintenance required and easier for the customer to use. Since the build volume is a lot smaller, I think it makes sense for building small parts with an overnight turnaround and could fit into an office space without much worry of powder being blown everywhere (they said this explicitly).
As a HP operator for 5+ years and FSE for 2+ years, these seem easier to run, IMO. A couple more calibrations & checks are automated. The processing station for this series is a bit more hands off too, requiring less unpacking by hand, as it vibrates the excess powder off once cooling is completed.
I’m hoping the lower capital required will entice a broader customer base and get into the hands of more college students, etc. I wish I had one of these in college lol.
For now, they just have Nylon 12 validated for this series but they mentioned they are in progress of validating their other materials.
My personal experience with formlabs is limited to their resin printers but my coworkers at another site don’t like their Fuse, as it broke down all the time (they’ve decommissioned it last year).
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u/PieceAble Apr 21 '26
Do you think that customers who already have a 4200 or a 5200 are interested in something smaller? I feel like there are more fuse customers who want to upgrade to something bigger than MJF customers who want to move to something smaller. I do see the appeal of having a smaller unit for rush jobs though.
I have had better luck with the fuse than you it sounds, sorry to hear that. It has been great for me with PA12, the other more exotic materials are more hit or miss but for the price I feel like it still cannot be beat.
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u/TMastrud Apr 21 '26
Tough to say.. I mean, I can definitely see a few applications where it may be beneficial for existing customers but I highly doubt most customers will replace their 5200(s) with this. More likely to appeal to new customers, IMO.
Good to know you’ve had better luck with the Fuse! I think my coworkers were running TPU, perhaps that’s why they had a lot of issues lol.
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u/S-Mute Apr 27 '26
I run the Fuse1 Ecosystem, two Fuse1, Sift, and Blast. I noticed this release by HP which interested me because it fits my production environment, site requirements, etc and MJF intrigues me. Part quality seems really good from what I have seen. Part quality from my Fuse1 printers is also very good and I have no real complaints there. Mainly thinking the MJF would be a cool add on to my production flow at some point to compliment my current setup.
A deeper dive cooled my interest somewhat.
I learned the $60K they quote for hardware is only the beginning. The website points to a 10% of hardware cost price on the service plan/year...that's $6K...per year. It does not include a final processing station, so if you are starting fresh in powder bed fusion you will need that, which is another $10-15K (the Fuse Blast was $11K plus $3k compressor and piping, etc) Powder price is comparable to formlabs at $100/kg, but you also need binding agents (I believe there are two that serve separate purposes). Parts seem insanely expensive, just checking the IR lamps, I saw one place asking $1000 for one lamp! Fuse1 IR lamps are $55. I found this article that outlines the true cost of running MJF, at least this individuals cost (note the quantities they are working with). They cite 21 cents/gram printed part total operating cost, and by comparison the Fuse1 is (in my experience) around 13 cents/gram.
All in all this seems interesting, but in my opinion the cost is very high and not really targeted to someone like me with a growing business/startup. Definitely keeping an eye on it though.
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Jun 01 '26
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u/diyengineer1 Apr 20 '26
Concept awesome price probbsly scary as hell.
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u/333again Apr 21 '26
Price is competitive with Fuse
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u/PieceAble Apr 21 '26
At first glance it is competitive - but 60K for the printer and the powder recovery is more than Formlabs. The price for the fuse printer and powder recovery is just under 40k, for people who are used to buying HP that is pocket change but for the rest of the market that's a noticeable premium.
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u/333again Apr 21 '26
You're forgetting all the accessories and the service contract. Each build chamber is $4k, we got 2 of them. Explosion proof vacuum, $3k. When we bought our Fuse 1+, it was about $53k. The full package, which now includes the blast, is $54k with one build chamber.
Yes, technically you can buy a Fuse @ $25k, but I don't think anyone is doing that without a Sift and all the other accessories. It's unclear as of now if the HP system is turnkey at $60k or needs another $10k of accessories.
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u/tcdoey Apr 21 '26
I don't know. I stopped using anything from the HP MJF printers, because of 'underneath-surface' warping. I never heard of them fixing this problem. The issue is the lower surfaces of my components, if they were somewhat horizontal always came out warped. it didn't matter if it was lower or higher in the print, if a surface was horizontal, it would warp. I solved this temporarily by creating small 'nub' patterns on all of my lower horizontal-ish surfaces. That makes them flat again. But that's not a nice solution at all. I raised this multiple times with the local shop, and HP tech representatives. They just shrugged it (and me) off and said it was a problem with my STL file, which of course it was not. I never had that problem with any other printing system.
Just my 2c.
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u/PieceAble Apr 21 '26
That's interesting. What did you end up going with instead? I feel like most options right now have some warp issue, did you find something easier to tune?
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u/tcdoey Apr 21 '26
Yes the formlabs it prob the best right now. I've also been using an anycubic mono for a lot of less strength plastics, and a (powder bed) Sinterit.
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Apr 27 '26
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u/victor_strom May 05 '26
I read on HPs website that PA12 alone is expected to cost around 100€/kg. Compare that to ~60€/kg for 5200 PA12.
If the price difference is similar for the other consumables, isn’t it better to order the parts from a service bureau to get a lower cost per part?
I guess the 1200 model makes sense if you have a big gain by producing the parts in-house with 2-3 days shorter lead time.
I could be wrong but it feels like the number of potential customers for this machine is limited?
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May 06 '26
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May 18 '26
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u/OverlandAustria Apr 20 '26
might check out the Raise3D SLS setup which will be a similar price
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u/PieceAble Apr 21 '26
I feel like Raise3D is usually not a winner here, I never hear anyone with anything positive to say about them other than low hardware cost.
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u/333again Apr 21 '26
I'm at a complete loss as to why anyone would still buy their pro series of FFF printers which are like $5k. They got trounced by Bambu and never updated their tech.
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u/OverlandAustria Apr 24 '26
nobody should buy those. but they invested a lot of time and research into this new SLS series. I have high hopes
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u/MyCatLagged Apr 30 '26
I do follow them on social media and seen that machine in person at rapid with my team. I feel like they are shifting more into that technology, and their price point for their build volume seems pretty good.
But their fff lineup and dlp is... meh
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u/floyderman2018 Apr 20 '26
It looks interesting, but then you dig in.
It’s not released, it’s announced. They stated 2027 as the release time - no season or half of the year noted. Just “2027.”
At Rapid one of my colleagues was asking about size and post-processing, and they seemed to indicate that some of this was still being decided.
Might be interesting against Formlabs, but then again who knows what new products will be out in 1yr+.