While HP is planning some direct sales of its new Jet Fusion printer lineup, the vast majority of the machines will be sold through about 30 resellers in North America and Europe, where the company is focusing its attention.

What's interesting "is 80 percent of these channel partners are new for HP," said Steven Nigro, president of HP's 3-D printing business.

HP also has more than a dozen 3-D printing reference and experience centers throughout the U.S. and Europe where potential customers can test the industrial 3-D printing product.

HP claims its Multi Jet Fusion 3-D printers will enable mass production of parts through additive manufacturing (3-D 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.

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