The HP Molded Fiber Advanced Tooling Solution

Detail of HP digitally designed molded fiber screen

Brand owners want more sustainable packaging but haven’t always been able to pay for it or do the work to find alternative materials. Now the tides have turned. Increased consumer demand to get away from plastics and foam has companies scrambling to re-establish sustainability goals, and HP’s tooling solution aligns perfectly with this renewed focus on sustainability.

Josh Larson, Global Business Manager at Veritiv

Why HP?Making a sustainable impactThe HP Molded Fiber Advanced Tooling Solution

At HP, we are committed to creating a better, more sustainable world.One way we are doing this is by investing in recycled, biodegradable, and reusable materials that are environmentally efficient—starting with our own packaging.

Our goalEliminate 75 percent of single-use plastic packaging by 2025, compared to 2018.1

This commitment led us to explore new solutions for the molded pulp industry, also known as molded fiber. In leveraging innovative HP technology to create our own molded fiber packaging, HP engineers identified an opportunity to advance traditional molding methods with new solutions that enhance the sustainable production of useful molded fiber products.

Introducing the HP Molded Fiber Advanced Tooling Solution—a solution that provides quality, ready-to-go molded fiber production tooling, delivered fast, from a service you can rely on.

Providing manufacturers of molded fiber products expanded tooling capabilities for greater production efficiencies and design opportunities, HP’s end-to-end service can enable additional profitability, help cut lead times, reduce maintenance time, and enable customized short runs.

According to Joe Grygny, founder and former Executive Director of the International Molded Fiber Association and Consultant for HP, the HP solution represents a significant breakthrough for the molded fiber industry.

Molded fiber manufacturers and partners are already experiencing the benefits:

Fiber Innovation is a professional molded pulp design and manufacturing company with more than 20 years of experience in the molded pulp industry.

Pacific Pulp Molding Inc. has designed and manufactured environmentally friendly molded pulp protective products for 21 years. Products include molded pulp packaging for consumer, industrial, electronics, automotive, bottle packaging, candle trays, appliances, plumbing sets, lock set trays, health and beauty and others across a wide variety of products and industries. They are actively sharing how their customers can benefit from HP’s solution and why they believe it will set a new standard for tooling.

Pulp Moulding Dies Inc. (PMD) is a very well known and industry-recognized tooler that has been in the molded fiber industry for over 40 years. In that time, the company has put a tool on every machine type that exists. By working with HP, PMD is helping to bring the value of the HP Molded Fiber Advanced Tooling Solution to the market by delivering quality production toolsets faster that are lighter and easier to maintain.

Pulp Moulded Products Inc. (PMP) is a Canadian molded fiber company that has been in the industry for just over 10 years. Specializing in protective packaging, their recent focus is on horticultural and produce solutions that replace other landfill alternatives. PMP is currently working with HP on an appealing FDA-compliant food tray.

Veritiv is an innovative provider of engineered packaging solutions and is working with HP on our first molded fiber packaging production application for the HP Desktop Mini PC, one of our top-selling computer products.

Western Pulp Products Company has been operating since the late 1950s and is a well-established producer of molded fiber containers and consumer packaging products. They have been impressed with the excellent quality of the embossed text that the HP Molded Fiber Advanced Tooling Solution delivers on their parts.

The HP Molded Fiber Advanced Tooling Solution

It’s not a prototype tool anymore, it’s a functioning production tool that could possibly outlast traditional tooling.

Troy Mutton, President at Pulp Moulding Dies Inc.

Erik Troelsen, Director of Packaging Design and Procurement at HP

The HP Molded Fiber Advanced Tooling Solution is going to enable HP to move more parts, more quickly to molded fiber. There’s a lot of motivation within my team to move the business to it.

Increased OEE and reduced downtime2

HP molded fiber tooling helps keep your machines up and running by reducing maintenance with tool materials that are not subject to corrosion4 or calcification5 in water, made possible by the 100% renewable material—from vegetable castor oil6—used to produce HP Molded Fiber Advanced tooling.

Quality tooling, faster2

HP is a solution provider the industry can rely on, providing molded fiber manufacturers with a competitive advantage by accelerating tooling fabrication and expediting delivery to customers. Production-ready tooling is delivered as quickly as 2 weeks after finalizing your design specs with HP’s engineering team,3 who can work with you up-front to optimize cycle time for forming and de-watering, using engineered fluid pathways to address special design requirements such as uneven wall thicknesses.

Now you can get production-equivalent pulp samples quickly off the same tools that can be used for normal production.

What excites me the most, though, is the idea of being able to just drop new tools into place and how much that reduces machine downtime.

Gord Heyting, CEO at Pulp Moulded Products Inc.

The ability to changeover the product is huge. The machines run 24/7, and when they’re not running, you’re not making money. Being able to changeover a tool in minutes instead of hours is a huge advantage.

Troy Mutton,President at Pulp Moulding Dies Inc.

Data courtesy of PMP

The screens are lightweight, they can be swapped easily and they can be changed easily. Not just that the setup is easier and quicker, but being lightweight puts a lot less stress on the machines. The HP Molded Fiber Advanced Tooling Solution parts are significantly lighter and that will have a tremendous benefit for our equipment maintenance costs.

Jason Wu, Managing Director at Fiber Innovation

HP molded fiber tooling produced with renewable6 HP 3D High Reusability PA 11 material7

The material’s strength and flexibility enable the HP Molded Fiber Advanced Tooling Solution to be manufactured with mold bodies that do not need the sectioning or drilling required with traditional tooling, and with screens that reduce production stoppages by eliminating seams and integrating other tooling features such as block-outs and wash walls that can be a source of part hang-ups. Further resource efficiencies are made possible by HP’s lightweight tools and rapid snap-fit HP SmartScreens that can be replaced in seconds without removing tools from your machine, improving resource efficiencies.

Jason Kinder, General Manager at Pulp Moulded Products Inc.

With HP, we can get parts back significantly faster and we can respond much more quickly to change requests and get to market quicker. That’s a huge benefit to how we can serve our customers.

HP’s Molded Fiber Advanced Tooling Solution is different, and we were really thrilled with it. I was pleasantly surprised with the sharpness and the details on some of the parts we produced. The definition of the text in our parts made by the HP SmartScreens was amazing. There was incredible clarity compared to conventional tooling solutions.

Bill Martin, Director of Operations at Western Pulp Products Company

The resolution of this tooling is something we have never seen before.

John McNeil,President at Pacific Pulp Molding Inc.

Data courtesy of Pacific Pulp Data courtesy of PMD

Production starts13 using HP’s proprietary digital technology

You can rely on the HP Molded Fiber Advanced Tooling Solution to help you deliver quality molded fiber products, faster.2 Our secure online platform is designed to strictly control tool confidentiality and tracks design changes.9 With our easily replaceable screens and on-demand ordering from our digital warehouse, you can reduce inventory of safety stock replacement tooling.

Design

Production

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How it works

Visit hp.com/go/MoldedFiberTooling and click “Get quote“ to access the HP

online ordering platform9,10

Upload your design file11 and create an account

The team of HP experts reviews the design and requirements and sends you a quotation

based on final design12

You approve final design and quotation

Your production-ready, quality tooling is ready to ship as

quickly as 2 weeks;3,14 payment can now be completed

Economically viable customized short runs

Quick and easy screen changes enable higher value customized production short runs, so you can deliver additional value to your customers with quick and cost-effective custom features such as embossed brand logos, model numbers, or traceability information. You can efficiently perform frequent changeovers with lightweight tools and rapid snap-fit HP SmartScreen replacement.8 And you can easily accommodate design iterations and changing customer requirements with HP’s proprietary digital technology that enables new levels of agility and versatility for tooling design and fabrication.

It’s very beneficial to have screens that can be tailored to a specific customer. To be able to do a branded short run for a specific customer has a lot of capability and promise. In most industries, people will pay more to have their name on products they make and sell.

Bill Martin,Director of Operations at Western Pulp Products Company

Easy customization for short runs helps customers get to market faster. For example, a customer could have a same size bottle with two different logos or information panels, and we can just quickly swap a screen and do a short run. That simply wasn’t an option before.

Josh Larson,Global Business Manager at Veritiv

Data courtesy of Western Pulp Data courtesy of PMD and Innofiber

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© Copyright 2021 HP Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice.

Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services and/or in a written agreement between you and HP. HP believes that the information herein is correct based on the current state of scientific knowledge and as the date of its publication, however, to the maximum extent permitted by law HP EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE (EVEN IF HP IS AWARE OF SUCH PURPOSE) WITH RESPECT TO ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED. Except to the extent that exclusion is prevented by law, HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions, and damages or losses of any kind or nature that result from the use of or reliance upon this information, which is subject to change without notice. The HP Jet Fusion 3D products have not been designed, manufactured or tested by HP for compliance with legal requirements for specific 3D printed parts and their uses, and recipients are responsible for determining the suitability of HP Jet Fusion 3D products for their uses, ensuring compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and being aware that other safety or performance considerations may arise when using, handling or storing the product.

4AA7-7872ENW, January 2021

Learn more athp.com/go/MoldedFiberTooling

Note: all third parties referenced in this document have received parts produced through the HP Molded Fiber Advanced Tooling Solution.

1. Calculated as the percentage of primary plastic packaging (by weight) reduced per unit shipped. Excludes secondary and tertiary packaging components. Includes HP personal systems and printer hardware packaging. Does not include packaging for the following: Graphics Solutions Business (GSB) hardware other than PageWide XL and DesignJet printers; 3D printing hardware; print supplies; refurbished products; and accessories such as third-party options, drop in box, and aftermarket options.

2. Compared to traditional CNC and manual tooling processes as of June, 2020. Based on internal HP analysis and testing including expert interviews and a review of published market reports. 4-6 weeks average fabrication lead time when producing in CNC.

3. Delivery as quickly as 2 weeks after HP receipt of design file, detailed specs, the tool design quotation approval, purchase order, and receipt of first payment. Shipping time not included.4. Polyamides in HP 3D High Reusability PA 11 material do not corrode with water (a common problem with metal tooling). Based on internal HP testing, August 2020. HP tools produced with HP 3D High Reusability

PA 11 material were tested over 5 days at 50° C (122° F) using 4 different solvents (DI water - control, tap water, CaCO3 saturated, and 5 wt% aluminum potassium sulfate), and presented no visual signs of corrosion. For details, see: hp.com/go/MoldedFiberWhitepaper.

5. Polyamides in HP 3D High Reusability PA 11 material do not present calcification signs with water (a common problem with aluminum tooling). Based on internal HP testing, November 2020. HP tools produced with HP 3D High Reusability PA 11 material were tested over 17 days at ambient temperature using 3 different solvents (DI water - control, tap water, CaCO3 super-saturated), and presented no visual signs of calcification or weight changes. For details, see: hp.com/go/MoldedFiberWhitepaper.

6. HP 3D High Reusability PA 11 powder is made with 100% renewable carbon content derived from castor plants grown without GMOs in arid areas that do not compete with food crops. HP 3D High Reusability PA 11 is made using renewable sources, and may be made together with certain non-renewable sources. A renewable resource is a natural organic resource that can be renewed at the same speed in which it is consumed. Renewable stands for the number of carbon atoms in the chain coming from renewable sources (in this case, castor seeds) according to ASTM D6866.

7. HP Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solutions using HP 3D High Reusability PA 11 provide up to 70% powder reusability ratio, producing functional parts batch after batch. For testing, material is aged in real printing conditions and powder is tracked by generations (worst case for reusability). Parts are then made from each generation and tested for mechanical properties and accuracy.

8. No machining, drilling, or manual screening needed.9. Secure online platform offering password protected intellectual property and encrypted access control. 10. For users only submitting design files, HP will be in contact for next steps.11. Files supported: CAD file, Step (.stp), IGES (.igs). For additional documents, PDF and 2D drawing (.dwg) for critical dimension assessment. Returning users need only enter login credentials.12. If needed, HP will share recommended optimization changes to the design file. You may need to provide additional specifications in order to complete the ordering information.13. Order status updates will be provided via email notifications.14. Reduce inventory of safety stock replacement tooling with HP’s easily replaceable screens and on-demand ordering from our digital warehouse.