HP SitePrint’s Innovative Ink Portfolio Streamlines Construction Layout

Trimble is deeply committed to integrating AI into its software offerings, as exemplified by the appointment of Karoliina Torttila as the company’s Director of AI. This significant role underscores Trimble’s dedication to AI-driven innovation, emphasizing Torttila’s extensive seven-year tenure with the company and her prior position as AI Portfolio Manager. Hailing from Finland and holding a master’s degree in construction engineering from Cambridge University, Torttila symbolizes the strategic importance that Trimble places on AI within its development and business strategies. BuildingPoint Canada is proud of these developments and improvements in the building and construction industry.

Torttila’s appointment comes at a pivotal moment when the demand for AI integration spans various stakeholders, including management, product managers, and the media, all eager to explore AI’s potential in revolutionizing design software. Trimble’s AI initiatives, as elucidated by Torttila, encompass a broad spectrum of applications ranging from generating stylized images to enhancing search capabilities within its 3D model repository. These advancements aim to bridge the gap between conceptualization and constructible designs, providing tools for both creative exploration and practical application in the design realm.

Discussions with Torttila delve into several key areas where AI is leveraged within Trimble’s ecosystem. This includes the utilization of generative AI for design conceptualization and the potential for it to simplify and enhance the modeling process through natural language interactions and task automation. Trimble adopts an approach to integrating AI that extends beyond mere model creation; envisioning AI’s role in material selection, detailed design work, and even optimizing design parameters for sustainability and efficiency.

Evolution of Onsite Layout Tools and Techniques

Onsite layout tools and techniques are evolving as a result. We’ve already seen the conventional tape measure and chalk line give way to total stations like the Trimble S7, and robotic total stations like the Trimble RTS 573 on major commercial and industrial projects.

These instruments have improved accuracy, saved time, and cut project costs. While accurate measurements are vital, the practical task of drawing layouts on the site floor is how onsite crews turn plans into reality.

HP SitePrint

HP SitePrint is a robotic solution for autonomous layout that’s up to ten times more productive than manual methods. SitePrint’s automated layouts can cover up to 4,000 square feet (372 square metres) per hour.

HP – The Printer Hardware and Ink Leader

Nobody knows more about printers and ink than HP.

SitePrint’s robotic hardware is durable, portable, and precise. It takes blueprint data and automatically prints lines, angles, arcs, guidelines, and related indications directly onto your site floor.

Supporting the advanced robot printer, what sets HP SitePrint apart is its versatile range of inks with various characteristics, life spans, and colours. The system can print on a wide range of standard construction surfaces, leaving permanent or semi-permanent lines, arcs, or characters.

HP’s decades of unique experience with ink innovation enables the technology company to deliver a portfolio of specialized inks with custom properties for any layout task, while fostering onsite teamwork between subcontractors and trades.

Solvent and Water-Based Inks for Various Surfaces

Whatever the project, HP has developed the right ink for your layout job. Its portfolio of solvent and water-based inks provide permanent or semi-permanent markups in a wide range of colours on practically any work surface, even in Canada’s frigid, winter operating environments.

HP SitePrint can deliver the optimal ink for:

Porous Surfaces:

• Plywood
• Concrete
• Asphalt

Water-Resistant Surfaces:

• Metal
• Vinyl
• Terrazzo
• Epoxy

Uneven Surfaces:

• Distance from print head to surface is 3/4” (19 mm)
• Easily prints on rough or uneven site floors

Multiple Colours and Range of Durability

HP SitePrint delivers a wide range of ink options for colour and durability. Their specialized inks lend themselves to even the most complex site layout challenges and project types. Durability options include:

• Fast-fading inks last a few days
• Medium-fading inks stay put for weeks
• Slow-fading inks remain readable for months

These options give project managers the flexibility to lay out floor plans for all trades and project stakeholders all at once using one simple tool. Printing out legible layouts for everybody, faster and with less effort, can give your company a competitive advantage and help your crews avoid costly mistakes and rework.

More Than Straight Lines

The HP SitePrint robot understands far more than simple, straight lines. Reading from your CAD drawing or BIM model or wirelessly from the Trimble RTS 573 it automatically handles:

• Complex angles
• Multi-sided shapes
• Arcs
• Circumferences

HP SitePrint can instantly print elaborate figures and shapes that even some human layout specialists find difficult and confusing to draw accurately.

The robot can also print text messages straight from your CAD or BIM file’s explanatory notes onto the site floor. This is another way HP SitePrint helps you prevent structural and mechanical clashes, confusion, delays, and costly project rework.

Accurate Layouts Promote Teamwork

As we all know from experience, design clashes can lead to interpersonal clashes. An accurate floor layout fosters teamwork and keeps the “blame game” from springing up between subcontractors, trades, and stakeholders. Crews that get along get things done.

Crews can set up HP SitePrint and put it to work in under ten minutes. The entire robot assembly weighs less than 25 pounds (11 kg), so it’s easy for one worker to carry between sites.

Replacing the ink and getting the robot back on the job is a simple and familiar task. If you can change an ink cartridge in your home or office printer, you already know how to change an HP SitePrint ink cartridge.

BuildingPoint Can Help

As a Canadian distributor of the HP SitePrint solution, BuildingPoint is proud to offer contractors, sub-contractors, trades, and other project stakeholders a new way to improve accuracy, save time, and reduce costs. HP SitePrint delivers the portable, user-friendly, robotic layout solution your crews need to save time, cut project costs, and make your business more competitive.

BuildingPoint is committed to a cost-effective building information modeling process that all stakeholders can apply at any phase of the design, build, and operate lifecycle of any structure.

To learn more about HP SitePrint’s layout capabilities, or to request a customized price quotation for a revolutionary tool that can save your business time and money, contact BuildingPoint Canada today.