Kimya, the additive manufacturing materials arm of technology companyARMOR, continues to provide 3D printing services for the railway industry with its latest project.
In need of a protective cover component developed back in 1982, an unnamed railway supplier recently turned to Kimya to 3D print a small batch of the polymer part via the Kimya Factory manufacturing service. Seeing as the mold for the cover no longer existed, the spare parts had to be redesigned from scratch prior to production. Using a PEKK filament developed in-house at the company’s R&D center, Kimya Lab, the team was able to deliver the 3D printed protective covers with cost savings and reduced lead times.
Kimya业务开发总监Pierre-Antoine Pluvinage解释说：“设计传统模具将需要更长的开发时间，并产生成本，只能通过生产数千个零件来支付。Kimya工厂为我们的合作伙伴提供了使用我们自己的材料的适合用途的成品，这些产品都是小型跑步的。”
From lab to factory
The project initially started off in the Kimya Lab, where ARMOR offered its customer a custom PEKK SC filament. The material was designed to resist high-temperatures up to 260°C while offering flame retardant capabilities, abrasion resistance, and even chemical resistance. As such, it was just the thing to meet the stringent quality criteria of the railway sector and crucially met the fire and smoke safety requirements of the EN45545 standard.
Pluvinage adds, “This collaboration required us to meet the certification standards of our customer’s business sector. This is why we decided to put forward the PEKK SC, a filament directly emanating from the Kimya Lab, our R&D center, as it meets the smoke/fire standards specified by the customer.”
Without a digital twin or mold to use as a reference, the Kimya Factory engineers were forced to work with a single paper plan they had at their disposal. Despite the original part being made of PVC, the team was able to 3D print a set of PEKK SC versions which successfully made it to end-use.
供应商的发言人说：“我们比较了几种用少量制造这些零件的技术，而添加剂制造被证明是经济，技术和交货时间观点的正确选择。雷电竞充值由Armour进行的组装测试和FAI质量文件的提交导致成功完成了这些添加剂制造零件的整个质量接受过程。雷电竞充值只有3D打印能够以这种效率满足我们的需求。”
Spare part 3D printing in the transport sector
Due to the inherent complexity of the mechanical assemblies found on trains and trams, the need to source spare parts is all too common. Unfortunately, many of these faulty components go back decades, meaning their production lines may no longer be operational and the existence of a corresponding digital file isn’t guaranteed. It’s in these situations that 3D printing has proven to be a valuable asset for both maintenance and vehicle upgrades.
Just last month, public transport companyAzienda Napoletana Mobilità(ANM) enlisted the help of Italian engineering firm3DnAto re-designmechanical components for Naples’ network of buses and trams。该公司反向工程和3D打印了“手推车头”，这些零件将每个电车连接到网络的航空电源线。由于市场上没有任何组件，传统上制造组件将导致一年多的交货时间。
Elsewhere, technology firmSiemens Mobility Serviceshas previously employed FDM 3D printing technology from OEMStratasysto producespare parts for the German and UK rail industries。Last year, the company also announced that it would be expanding its rail maintenance operations to Russia, where it has since been supporting the 13 additional high-speed Velaro trains it built for train companyRZD。
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Featured image shows a close up of Kimya’s PEKK filament next to a 3D printed PEKK object. Photo via 3DGence.
