3D printing as digital railway transformation engine
3D printing: A distruptive and promising technology for the railway industry
3D printing or Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a manufacturing process, that builds layer on layer to create a three-dimensional object from a digital model. AM is already established in some industries, for example in medical, aerospace or machine building and tooling.
This fast-emerging technology is expected to have a disruptive impact on worldwide transportation and logistics chains. It allows for cost-efficient decentralized manufacturing – even in industrialized countries. Related to maintenance and repair of trains and equipment, required components are often no longer available as a replacement or the ordering process is very lengthy. In addition, high charges are often linked to small purchasing quantities. Thus, either high procurement costs arise combined with a high risk of long vehicle downtimes, or even higher costs for storage have to be borne if a large number of different spare parts are kept on stock in combination with infrequent and unpredictable usage patterns.
In contrast, AM allows to exploit new value-added potentials for the railway sector. We can support you to identify and unlock full potential for your company.
Recent use cases from the railway sector show, that it is possible to reduce non-operational times, storage cost and lead time for a spare part bei 90 % each.
Our solution – Identify and leverage the potential of 3D printing in the railway sector
We prepare the railway industry for profitable use of Additive Manufacturing. We can support you reliably on your journey to explore and implement benefits using 3D printing. Togehter with you, we develop a straight forward and tailor made roadmap. By treading this path togheter with us, you will be able to generate new and profitable business opportunities.
We offer support along the whole cycle of AM activities, from idea generation and feasibility analysis, market analysis and strategy development, to the actual implementation of AM in your company. Together with us, you can build up the necessary know how in your company, establish your individual introduction strategy and anchor 3D printing effectively in your processes.
There are dozens of promising AM business opportunities for the railway sector, like production of own spare parts on site, fast production of prototypes, increas in performace of parts, aggregation of assemblies to an integrated manufacturing as single component or lightweight apporaches saving material and thus costs.
Our approach
We apply our proven and structured approach to help railway operators as well as maintenance and repair workshops to improve business processess and to increas profits.
To provide maximum customer satisfaction, we develop all strategies and processes in a tailored manner to satisfy our clients’ unique needs and ensure that all solutions offered are based on economic considerations.
Our comprehensive range of Consulting services cover the entire lifecycle of AM activities.
To guarantee highes quality of our sevices, we use sophisticated tools and methods ranging from lifecycle profitability analysis to re-design and (FEM-based) part optimization as needed.
If you want further information, download our Fact Sheet “Railway industry” here or contact us!
