At this point, most people in additive manufacturing (AM) agree on one thing: the industry has spent years talking about potential. After years of promises and future-looking concepts, companies are now trying to prove that 3D printing can reliably manufacture real products at an industrial scale.
That was a major focus of a recent 3DPrint.com interview with Arvind Rangarajan, Global Head of Product and Strategy for HP’s additive manufacturing business. Rangarajan repeatedly returned to the idea of moving AM beyond a novelty and making it a dependable production technology.
“I think that’s basically the key theme inside HP now,” Rangarajan said. “We have been talking about additive as a novelty. But what we want now is to think about it as a real tool for production. So it sits on par with other traditional manufacturing technologies, and when designers are designing their products, they think about additive as a manufacturing process and not as prototyping.”
For HP, that means moving beyond prototyping and small pilot programs. The company wants AM to become a regular manufacturing option alongside processes like injection molding and other traditional production methods.
“When designers are designing their products, they think about additive as a manufacturing process and not as prototyping,” he said. “And for that, we need to make additive work at scale. When we think about true scaling, we are talking about a production facility that is running 10 plus printers that are actually producing parts for end-use products. We are moving from tooling and prototyping to series production.”
One of the best examples, he said, is orthotics and prosthetics, where 3D printing is already producing large volumes of customized parts. HP customer organizations are now manufacturing hundreds of thousands of end-use products through distributed production facilities using multiple printers.
“You could print the same design anywhere and expect the same product quality,” Rangarajan said. “That’s how you start thinking about it from a production and scale perspective. Many of these distributed manufacturing sites now operate multiple printers producing end-use parts continuously.”
Arvind Rangarajan at RAPID + TCT 2026. Image courtesy of HP via LinkedIn.
That matters because repeatability has long been one of AM’s biggest challenges. HP believes companies will only fully trust 3D printing for production if they can get reliable results across different machines and production sites.
Rangarajan said three things are critical if 3D printing is going to scale: performance, cost, and reliability.
“The first one is that additive needs to deliver a clear performance benefit,” he said. “The second thing is that it has to be competitively priced and cost-effective compared to conventional manufacturing processes. Manufacturers also need reliable and repeatable results if they are going to trust AM for production.”
A major part of HP’s strategy revolves arou
At this point, most people in additive manufacturing (AM) agree on one thing: the industry has spent years talking about potential. After years of promises and future-looking concepts, companies are now trying to prove that 3D printing can reliably manufacture real products at an industrial scale.
That was a major focus of a recent 3DPrint.com interview with Arvind Rangarajan, Global Head of Product and Strategy for HP’s additive manufacturing business. Rangarajan repeatedly returned to the idea of moving AM beyond a novelty and making it a dependable production technology.
“I think that’s basically the key theme inside HP now,” Rangarajan said. “We have been talking about additive as a novelty. But what we want now is to think about it as a real tool for production. So it sits on par with other traditional manufacturing technologies, and when designers are designing their products, they think about additive as a manufacturing process and not as prototyping.”
For HP, that means moving beyond prototyping and small pilot programs. The company wants AM to become a regular manufacturing option alongside processes like injection molding and other traditional production methods.
“When designers are designing their products, they think about additive as a manufacturing process and not as prototyping,” he said. “And for that, we need to make additive work at scale. When we think about true scaling, we are talking about a production facility that is running 10 plus printers that are actually producing parts for end-use products. We are moving from tooling and prototyping to series production.”
One of the best examples, he said, is orthotics and prosthetics, where 3D printing is already producing large volumes of customized parts. HP customer organizations are now manufacturing hundreds of thousands of end-use products through distributed production facilities using multiple printers.
“You could print the same design anywhere and expect the same product quality,” Rangarajan said. “That’s how you start thinking about it from a production and scale perspective. Many of these distributed manufacturing sites now operate multiple printers producing end-use parts continuously.”
Arvind Rangarajan at RAPID + TCT 2026. Image courtesy of HP via LinkedIn.
That matters because repeatability has long been one of AM’s biggest challenges. HP believes companies will only fully trust 3D printing for production if they can get reliable results across different machines and production sites.
Rangarajan said three things are critical if 3D printing is going to scale: performance, cost, and reliability.
“The first one is that additive needs to deliver a clear performance benefit,” he said. “The second thing is that it has to be competitively priced and cost-effective compared to conventional manufacturing processes. Manufacturers also need reliable and repeatable results if they are going to trust AM for production.”
A major part of HP’s strategy revolves arou