Siemens Innovation Center: Cutback Tool

Engineers at the Siemens Innovation Center were tasked with finding a better way to maintain turbines that could help reduce offsite repairs and costly downtime. Within four weeks of receiving the brief, the team designed and created a circular saw-inspired cutback tool that accurately matched the contour of the turbine. If the design worked, field engineers could provide simple on-site maintenance instead of shipping the gas turbines to a repair facility for maintenance saving weeks of time.

They utilized their seven Markforged X7 industrial 3D printers to rapidly prototype the cutting tool — printing every aspect of the tool except for the pneumatic spindle and a few off-the-shelf screws.The new and improved 3D printed tool is regularly used in the field to repair turbine components, which can now be performed over three shifts during a routine inspection.