Stefanie Brickwede’s efforts at Deutsche Bahn and Mobility Goes Additive are herculean and will have a significant impact on our industry. Through Brickwede’s efforts, Deutsche Bahn has already 3D printed thousands of parts from polymer items to help the blind to large metal parts in critical applications. Seeing that the challenge of industrializing 3D printing for rail was too big for even the huge Deutsche Bahn, she cobbled together an alliance of railway firms and partnered them all with service companies, software firms, metal printer companies, and materials businesses to see if they could conjointly implement 3D printing for rail.

This is an incredibly cost-effective move that could see us implement 3D printing across the rail industry much sooner than if everyone tried it alone. Brickwede talks with us about how she did it, what the key challenges are and were, what kinds of parts they print, and how Deutsche Bahn works together with others.

I really believe that if others follow in her footsteps for other industries, applications and regions, we can accelerate the adoption of additive manufacturing significantly. This is really one of the most important things happening in 3D printing, so give this a listen and spread the word.