Engineered4Extremes - In Focus

Building a train's nose used to start with an expensive mould. This one skipped that step entirely. A German consortium led by HÖRMANN Vehicle Engineering, working with Fraunhofer IWU and Siemens Mobility, spent 34 months developing a tool-free, large-format 3D printing process for heavy-duty rail components, completed in 2026. The process was validated by producing the nose section and front skirt of the Siemens ICE 3neo, a high-speed train operating at up to 320km/h, using a flame-retardant, glass-fibre-reinforced thermoplastic composite engineered to meet strict EN 45545-2 fire safety standards while remaining fully recyclable. No forming tools, no lengthy retooling between designs, and a material that can be reprocessed at the end of its life. It is manufacturing built for iteration, not just for one train.