Wabtec Begins Operations at Neighborhood 91 AM Hub

On June 8, Wabtec Corp. held a grand-opening celebration for its new 11,000-sq.-ft. facility at Neighborhood 91, an additive manufacturing (AM) production campus at Pittsburgh (PA) International Airport. At Neighborhood 91, Wabtec will produce production parts via 3D printing for rail and transit customers, employing state-of-the-art AM technology such as an SLM 800 AM machine from SLM Solutions to produce large-scale, lightweight parts while reducing lead times by as much as 80 percent.

Neighborhood 91, developed in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh, resides adjacent to the airport terminal and runway as part of the 195-acre Pittsburgh Airport Innovation Campus.

“Advances in additive technology are changing the way we design and build the next generation of business-critical, sustainable products for our customers,” says Eric Gebhardt, Wabtec chief technology officer. “Neighborhood 91 and its one-of-a-kind additive ecosystem will help foster creative solutions to engineering challenges and breakthroughs in 3D printing. Our Neighborhood 91 facility and the other additive labs in Western Pennsylvania will accelerate new innovations that shrink lead times, reduce cost and increase reliability.”