German rail operator Deutsche Bahn has released a statement: Since 2015, the company has created some 100,000 pieces of rolling stock using a 3D printer, including metal spare parts that weigh more than half a ton.
The company considers that the printing of parts on 3D printers is the future of rail transport, so it is trying to increase said production.
“3D printing saves time, money and resources, because thanks to the ‘digital warehouse’ we can produce spare parts at the touch of a button,” Deutsche Bahn spokeswoman Daniela Gerd Tom Marcotten said, according to TASS.
To create train parts digitally, the German company has developed its own 3D printers and a network of partners, which includes more than 140 companies.
But there are also difficulties in this area: “the problem is not so much printing and the number of printed parts, but the digitization of drawings” and the creation of digital twins of specific components. It takes a long time, and the “twins” base is not large yet.
Deutsche Bahn expects the digital twin database of train parts to grow from 1,000 to 10,000 parts by 2030, which will account for approximately 10% of the parts used in vehicle maintenance.
The creation of such a base and the speed of 3D printing significantly reduce the production time of the train parts. For example, the delivery time for a gearbox for a diesel locomotive is reduced from ten to two months.
There are also resource savings: mechanical processing leaves a lot of waste, while digital printing uses only the necessary amount of raw materials.
In addition to Deutsche Bahn, Bombardier and Angel Trains are also investing in 3D printing of train parts. According to Ernst & Young, already in 2019 the number of companies in the logistics and transport sector using 3D printing for the production of spare parts was 16%.
In Russia, Russian Railways uses similar technologies to produce maintenance parts for Sapsan and Lastochka trains. The Epit brand, which supplies five-axis printers for a carrier, calculated in 2022 that the use of 3D printing in the maintenance of rolling stock of the Russian Railways fleet for only 4 purchase positions can save 12.5 million rubles year.
Author:
Ekaterina Alipova
Source: RB
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