back to article HP Inc: No DRM in our 3D printers, we swear (unlike our 2D ones)

While HP Inc is getting a lot of flack over its DRM lockdown on 2D printing consumables, in the 3D world the company wants to address that it won't be setting the prices on consumables. Speaking at the 50th anniversary party for HP Labs, Tim Weber, global head of 3D materials for the firm, said that HP Inc would not be the …

  1. Dwarf

    Certified for sale

    The article says certified for sale, which is a million miles away from being completely open.

    I'm thinking cars at the moment. Tyres, oil, petrol - imagine if they were certified by every manufacturer on every car - the maintenance centres would be massive !!

    We're supposed to live in an open market where we can choose which product we want without any artificial limitations being placed on what we buy. I wonder when those who put in the policies are going to start enforcing the rules on manufacturers.

    1. AndyS

      Re: Certified for sale

      Agreed.

      "I'm sorry, the cartridge you have inserted is not certified by HP for use in your machine."

      In what practical way is this different from the current situation?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Certified for sale

        No it's fine, just stump up £5 million for the certification program (per product) and away you go.

      2. imanidiot Silver badge

        Re: Certified for sale

        Since this is enterprise level stuff HP is probably banking on the buyer wanting warranty and support for the thing. At that level it is safe to assume HP would have a clause in its support contract that it won't provide support for uncertified materials. That would shut the door for outsider materials suppliers pretty fast.

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Certified for sale

      "I'm thinking cars at the moment. Tyres, oil, petrol"

      A good analogy. The manufacturer will specify the grade of oil for the engine, probably with different recommendations for different climates. If you try to run on liquid glue or sewing machine oil you'll find your warranty invalidated. Likewise if you run on the wrong grade of fuel. If you mix radials and cross-plies (are cross-plies still a thing?) or the wrong speed rating or whatever you might find you've invalidated your insurance.

      So, yes, a manufacturer should be able to specify the quality of consumables. Playing HP's current games is a different matter, however.

  2. James 51

    Industry might be willing to pay the extra to ensure quality of supply through a certified for quality label/chip would be better than a total lock down which is what the article suggests.

    1. Dwarf

      Certified

      @James 51

      So, how do you think they would they enforce the certification - by adding the correct DRM signature to the approved 3rd parties cartridges or by adding an "HP Certified" sticker (with a funny blue-green border) on the outside of the box

      I know which one my money is on - particularly as many of the £1000+ 3D printers have cartridge chips already. This is why when I come to buy my 3D printer, one of the checks will be no limitations on the media being used.

      1. James 51

        Re: Certified

        I don't have a problem with certified products having chips, it's locking out third party products that do not have the chip that I would find troubling.

        1. AndyS

          Re: Certified

          >I don't have a problem with certified products having chips, it's locking out third party products that do not have the chip that I would find troubling.

          Oh, but they won't do that. Not initially, anyway - that would lead to too many returns. They'll just display a message, which you need to dismiss before using the machine (every single time) that there are non-genuinecertified materials being used. Of course, this will also invalidate the warranty, and the fact it's happened will be stored on non-volatile memory.

          A few years down the line, of course, there is a chance a firmware update might change that behaviour, but only after the items are out of warranty anyway. So, on 28 September 2019, you might suddenly find the printer stops working for all consumables without that chip. HP will of course look into this, while locking down any threads requesting answers and failing to respond to any enquiries.

          But that's not DRM, of course. That's to enhance the user experience, ensure the product's optimal functioning, and the safety of the equipment. Nothing to do with the current 2D printer situation.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Industry might be willing to pay the extra to ensure....."

      Some would... some wouldn't. I wouldn't. It is why I have never had a laser printer that I could not refill myself, and NEVER had an inject printer. Currently, I have a 5 year old Samsung color laser printer that I soldered a daughter card into to override the d*mn manufacturer's DRM.

      I don't need HP to be my nanny to prescreen overpriced suppliers for me.

  3. Oengus

    What cost for Certification?

    once HP Inc has certified them as safe.

    You can bet that HP will be charging for the certification and that you will need to re-certify each new batch of materials. Any bets on the certification charges being "waived" where the suppliers of the consumables offer HP a "royalty" for each unit of sale.

  4. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

    and when their bottom line tanks

    The next CEO/COO will insist on DRM on everything including the use of non HP paper in the printers.

  5. John Lilburne

    Tricky ...

    ... 3D printing it is.

    Way back in time it used to be possible to do colour film printing but there were so many variables involved that by the time you had managed to get the development time correct and removed the colour cast, you'd either run out of developer and needed to mix up another batch or you'd run out of paper and needed to open another packet. All of which meant that you needed to go back through the test printing and colour cast removal process.

    For most people what you get most of the time out of 3d printing is an amorphous blob of plastic. You need controlled inputs into the process (industry) otherwise your cheapo printing material is going to end up producing expensive junk.

  6. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    "Speaking at the 50th anniversary party for HP Labs, Tim Weber, global head of 3D materials for the firm, said that HP Inc would not be the sole provider for consumables."

    I'll bet he didn't make too much of the point that what HP stood for 50 years ago when it opened its Labs is very different from what we see in HP today.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Indeed, I think they spun off the brown sauce division years ago.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        HP leaves a little brown sauce on everything they touch.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The best innovation

    Out of HP in recent memory was moving from the square glass bottles and introducing squeezy bottles.

    For that, I tip my hat.

    For all the haters out there I wouldnt furnish a bacon sandwich with anything other than HP products.

    My wife tried to refill our HP with some cheap off brand product once. I could tell the difference immediately.

  8. Mark Simon

    Flow on effect

    They way I read the comments, nobody trusts HP on their 3D plans because of what they have done in the 2D world. Didn’t HP see that coming?

    The big companies have to learn that what they do to customers has the potential to work both ways. I think that’s called Karma.

  9. Buster

    There is already an open source 3D printer on the way that can print in four colours and more.

    http://prusaprinters.org/original-prusa-i3-mk2-multi-material-upgrade-release/#_ga=1.69159447.748668875.1472122440

    While at the moment it is four individual unmixed colours there is the possibility of mixing colours on the fly in the future. CMKY is a bit optimistic because there is no way that just mixing secondary colours with black, in effect as pigments, are going to produce an acceptable gamut without white. To get the sort of gamut that designers would need there would need to be a few more pigments as well possibly as many as nine in total.

    So there is your lock in system because to step up to another supplier you would have to dump the unused HP stock including the rarely use extra ones. Then of course we are not talking grams here it will be environmentally sealed 5 Kg capacity cartridges.

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