Siemens hub to speed industrialization of additive manufacturing

Siemens announced the opening of its new Charlotte Advanced Technology Collaboration Hub (CATCH), located in Charlotte, NC. This new strategic research-and-development hub, spearheaded by Siemens Digital Industries, Siemens Technology and Siemens Energy to focus on helping our customers accelerate their plans for the industrialization of additive manufacturing (AM). Specifically, Siemens will use this space to collaborate with key machine builders (OEMs), end-users and US national laboratories to ensure the successful industrialization of additive manufacturing.

In conjunction with this announcement, Siemens also recently announced partnerships with ExOne, Xerox and Roboze, leaders in building industrial 3D printers. This partnership will ensure that Siemens and its collaborators have the most advanced hardware on the market.

“We are excited to launch this new additive manufacturing hub and to begin inviting customers in to collaborate and find ways to accelerate the industrialization of this technology,” said Tim Bell, additive manufacturing business manager, Siemens Digital Industries. “The benefits of additive manufacturing are clear from faster time-to-market, to better design through digital prototypes, to localized manufacturing helping to reduce supply chain constraints. We believe that future of manufacturing is additive.”

Dr. Hallee Deutchman, head of Research in Materials and Industrialized Manufacturing (US) for Siemens Technology stated, “the CATCH center will not only help industrialize additive manufacturing, but also help incubate and grow the next generation of cutting-edge technology to solve industry’s hardest manufacturing problems.”

CATCH will be the entry point for many manufacturers to understand how and why AM is crucial to designing products more effectively, manufacturing them closer to the point of purchase and creating a more resilient supply chain, claims Siemens, which has accumulated a group of world-class experts from several Siemens businesses and operating companies. CATCH will become one of seven hubs strategically placed at major AM ecosystems around the world with the distinct focus of facilitating customer AM journeys.

Further enabling the collaboration between Siemens, machine OEM’s, and end users, Siemens Financial Services (SFS)—the financing arm of Siemens—supplied the CATCH lab with a financing solution that aided the leasing of several 3D printers for use in the lab. Financing additive manufacturing is a strategic priority for SFS as the evolution and digitalization of manufacturing continues, and the revolutionary use of 3D printing expands.