Thanks to a special process by the Berlin-based company Gefertec, Deutsche Bahn is now able to print heavy metal parts for the first time, thus drastically shortening the delivery time. In order to produce a spare part by the push of a button, DB creates design templates for 3D printing from drawings or scanned objects.
“With the breakthrough in metal printing, we can now gradually ensure a faster supply of spare parts and get the vehicles quickly back on track,” says Sabina Jeschke, DB Board Member Digitalisation and Technology. “The goal is to make around 10,000 different spare parts available via 3D printing by 2021.”
3D printing not only saves time, it also saves valuable raw materials. Spare parts are no longer stored in large quantities, but manufactured on demand. This print-on-demand process uses only the raw material that is really needed. Production waste is minimised, inventories are reduced and transport routes are eliminated. Additive manufacturing thus makes an important contribution to environmental protection.
For the first time, DB will integrate 3D printing into vocational training this year. All of the approximately 200 young people starting their apprenticeships in September 2019 in one of the DB’s twelve major maintenance plants will be producing parts using the 3D printing process in the future. Since commercial-technical training has not yet taken 3D printing into consideration, DB has developed its own training content.
