Siemens Mobility's rail service center bets on 3D printing
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Siemens Mobility opened up its first digital rail maintenance center and is using 3D printing to manufacture parts, reduce inventory and get trains running faster.
The rail center--the Siemens Mobility RRX Rail Service Center. Located in Dortmund-Eving, Germany--is using Stratasys' Fortus 450mc Production 3D Printer to make on-demand tooling and replacement parts. According to Siemens Mobility, a unit of Siemens, manufacturing time of parts has been reduced by about 95 percent.
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Siemens Mobility noted that the rail center will receive about 100 trains at its depot every month. Additive manufacturing allows Siemens Mobility to be more efficient with spare parts. Typically, the company relied on casting and traditional methods that would take about 6 weeks to manufacture a customized part.
With Stratasys' equipment, Siemens Mobility can produce parts in 13 hours. Within a week, the company can iterate, optimize and 3D print a production grade part. Siemens Mobility is using 3D printing to also improve its tooling.
Here are some images from the Siemens Mobility RRX Rail Service Center.
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