Applications for 3D Printing at the Heart of the Railway Industry

Present in many fields, 3D printing is also making news in the railway industry. The technology offers many advantages to players in the sector, particularly in terms of speed and cost of production. Whether it’s to design armrests, seats or other components for trains, additive manufacturing has proven to be a more than viable alternative on many occasions. In order to better understand the different uses of 3D printing in the railway sector, 3Dnatives proposes today to look back at some of the most outstanding projects in the industry.

Additive Manufacturing for Train Maintenance

You may have already heard of SNCF, a major player in the French railway industry. The public company has integrated additive manufacturing into its activities to design spare parts more quickly and thus avoid long downtimes. Bruno Langlois, Director of Equipment at SNCF, explains: “To ensure train availability, SNCF must be able to change a defective component the same day. However, since trains are made up of a large number of parts, we have to manage a large stock. With additive manufacturing, we could reduce it by creating parts as needed.” In 2021, SNCF announced the integration of 3YOURMIND software to identify and qualify spare parts that could be 3D printed. At the time, the solution identified 10.3% of 3D printed parts that could be made using AM out of more than 30,000 spare parts and reduced delivery times by 85%, statistics that have certainly increased since.

Alstom and 3D printing of spare parts

In 2016, Alstom presented its “Industry of the Future” program, in which additive manufacturing certainly plays a role. The group is indeed convinced of the added value of 3D technologies in the railway sector, especially when it comes to gaining flexibility and reducing downtime that can represent heavy financial losses. In 2021, the French company presented a concrete case study on tramways, more precisely for the Algerian Setif network. Thanks to its 3D printing center, Alstom was able to design drain plugs made of TPU 92A to prevent the headlights from breaking. A dozen parts were printed in 48 hours, reducing fixed costs by 80%. Usually, it takes 45 days to receive a replacement part.