Siemens Mobility has opened its first rail maintenance center where spare parts are realized with 3D printing technology for more than 100 trains every month. Before, the company used  traditional production methods and components were produced within 6 weeks. Now, thanks to Additive manufacturing Siemens Mobility can have at its disposal components within 13 hours, drastically reducing  production time and costs.

Customized solutions  and flexible manufacturing with 3D printing

“Every train has to go through maintenance several times a year. As you can imagine, all our customers would like this process to be as quick as possible, but they still expect maximum levels of detail, safety and quality in the work we do. This is where Additive manufacturing perfectly meets the market needs, providing  us the ability to rapidly produce customized parts, using high performance materials.” Says Michael Kuczmik, Head of Additive Manufacturing at Siemens Mobility GmbH.”-“Within a week we can iterate and optimize the design and print a final, customized part, saving  the manufacturing time by up to 95%.

Thanks to Additive manufacturing Siemens Mobility can not only obtain replacement parts, but also increase its tooling capabilities. One such example is an essential ‘connector’ tool, used to maintain train bogies (the chassis or framework that carries the wheelset), realized in ULTEM 9085 a thermoplastic of FDM technology (Fused deposition Modeling). The challenge was to find a thermoplastic  resistant to high pressures and mechanical stress. ULTEM 9085 is an extremely rigid and resistant material suitable for railway applications.

Click here to download the ULTEM 9085 technical data sheet!

Source: https://www.forbes.com

Spring srl, your ideal partner

Spring srl is the Italian and European leader in industrial additive manufacturing. The company realizes final, functional components, prototypes, production tools and spare parts. Spring srl, with its 20 years of experience in additive manufacturing and outstanding technical expertises, produces high performance components for leading companies in the rail, aerospace, automotive, industrial automation, medical and consumer goods sector. Spring srl owns many 3D professional printers that allow us to provide components up to 900x600x900mm.

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