IT Blog

The AM Network is an online marketplace that connects members with designers, engineers, and factories around the world. As its name implies, “additive manufacturing” is industrial-strength 3D printing, using metals or polymers to accrete the finished product. Its advantages are speed and flexibility—instead of having to retool machines, you can simply reprogram them, albeit at greater expense than traditional long production runs. Which is why it’s typically deployed to produce valuable components on demand—for trains and turbines in Siemens’ case, which has more than 200 such machines itself. Prior to the pandemic, network members used it to produce artificial hips and even glove compartments for BMW MINIs.

Watching hospitals scramble to repair ventilators and protect doctors and nurses, the Siemens team asked themselves, “How can we connect those who desperately need these parts with suppliers who can deliver them?” says Robert Meshel, the network’s director….