Rail supplier news from Wabtec and RSI (June 9)

Wabtec Corp. yesterday marked the start of operations at Neighborhood 91, its additive manufacturing production campus at Pittsburgh International Airport’s Innovation Campus. The new 11,000-square-foot facility builds upon the company's efforts to drive innovation in the rail industry through its growing additive manufacturing capabilities, Wabtec officials said in a press release. The site features an SLM®800 printer, which will produce state-of-the-art, large-scale, lightweight parts for rail industry customers. Production will include metal aluminum transit components like brake parts, heat sinks for freight locomotives, among many other rail applications. Applying additive manufacturing technology to some of these applications will reduce lead times by up to 80%.

Railway Supply Institute (RSI) Senior Vice President of Government and Public Affairs Nicole Brewin yesterday praised aspects of the proposed Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America Act (INVEST), which is slated to be marked up in Congress today. The legislation would “strengthen the Buy America program to ensure that domestic content requirements are rigorously enforced, close loopholes that allow foreign state-owned enterprises to exploit American tax dollars and create new safeguards in the freight rail-car manufacturing industry,” Brewin said in a statement. RSI also urges the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to make changes during the committee markup that “defer certain controversial and prescriptive provisions of this bill to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the industry’s existing collaboration forums, and the regulatory process” and focus instead on investments and policy reforms that will expand the U.S. economy, Brewin added.