Berlin's ecosystem for additive manufacturing

The topic of additive manufacturing is already very important in the production environment here. An excellent example of how a wide range of AM technologies are used daily at the Berlin site for the production of sample components (rapid prototyping) and for tooling solutions and how more and more employees are being won over to the topic.

The AMBER team has gained exciting insights into your contribution on our way to becoming the capital of additive manufacturing!

BigRep 3D printers enable fast, cost-efficient production of individual parts for frequent design adjustments in prototyping phas through to small quantities in series production.

In this example, Magirus developed window frames for fire trucks on a BigRep and achieved the highest material and quality requirements, with faster design iterations and far lower costs than traditional manufacturing.

With paramate-technology from trinckle and modern 3D printing, individual grippers, fixtures and jigs can be created in just a few minutes - without any CAD knowledge. Whether at Schmalz, Ford or Audi Sport: the automated design process saves up to 95% of time and costs and makes the development of customized solutions via 3D printing simple and efficient.

iFab uses state-of-the-art 3D printing technology to manufacture customized products with a combination of rigid and flexible structures. The digital process based on a 3D scan enables lean designs and maximum functionality - implemented using the SLS process and tailored to the specific requirements of the user.

In collaboration with the Federal Institute for Materials Research, Siemens Energy has developed an innovative process for repairing highly complex turbine blades after reaching the end of their service life.

After removing the damaged areas, the geometry is restored using a laser powder bed process so the blades can be used again. Not only does this save material and production costs, it also enables the integration of newly developed geometries and cooling channels at the blade tips for increased efficiency of the entire system.

Alstom recognized the potential of additive manufacturing very early on and now prints many parts: Prototyping, production aids, spare parts in maintenance or, as in this case, socket covers as series parts made of fire-retardant plastic. On the left you can see the printed part, on the right the painted end part with embedded threads.

Pierburg has been using additive manufacturing in production and development for some time now.
During our visit, we were able to take a look at the printers and application examples, such as individual production aids as well as more complex parts that are used for prototyping in the development of new production solutions in order to implement new applications more quickly and cost-effectively.
For series production, traditional processes in combination with automation will continue to be used.

A big thank you for the insight into AM applications at the Berlin plant.