Siemens Mobility digital rail maintenance center employs 3-D printing

Siemens Mobility GmbH, part of Siemens AG, has opened its first digital rail maintenance center, the Siemens Mobility RRX Rail Service Center, in Dortmund-Eving, Germany. The maintenance depot offers the highest level of digitalization in the rail industry, using FDM 3-D printing from Stratasys.

The company reports it has eliminated the need for inventory of selected spare parts, reduced the manufacturing time of these parts by up to 95 percent, and can respond to all internal and customer demands seamlessly.

About 100 trains are expected to enter the depot every month. The company installed a Stratasys Fortus 450mc Production 3-D printer to produce replacement parts and tooling on demand.