Renishaw Opening New North American Headquarters Near Chicago, Which Will House US Additive Manufacturing Solutions Centre

February 1, 2017 by Sarah Saunders 3D Printing Business Metal 3D Printing

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Renishaw plc, a global leader in additive manufacturing, is headquartered in Gloucestershire, UK, and is the only manufacturer of metal additive manufacturing systems in that country. Back in the spring of 2015, the company relocated its 3D printing division to a larger, more state-of-the-art facility in Stone Business Park, and said that this move further demonstrated its commitment to the additive manufacturing industry. While at formnext 2015, Renishaw also revealed its plans to open an Additive Manufacturing Solutions Centre, where its customers would be able to participate in evaluation projects, to see how additive manufacturing could benefit their own organizations. Fast-forward to today, and these AM Solutions Centres will soon be part and parcel of what the company offers its clients.

Renishaw UK Innovation Centre [Image: Renishaw]

Renishaw Inc., getting ready for continued growth on this side of the pond, is planning to open its new North American headquarters in West Dundee, Illinois, which is about 40 miles from Chicago. They will move into a two-story, 133,000-square-foot multipurpose facility that will be part office, part warehouse, and part distribution. There will also be space included for testing and product development. But most importantly, it will house the company’s new cutting-edge US Additive Manufacturing Solutions Center, which will assist in advancing AM development and be part of “Renishaw’s network of global Solutions Centers, opening over the next year.”

Renishaw Solution Centers come equipped with the latest additive manufacturing systems, and provide its customers a secure environment for development, where they can learn and grow in their AM knowledge. These centers will give Renishaw’s customers new venues where the process of adopting innovative additive manufacturing services can be accelerated.

Sir David McMurtry, Chairman and CEO of Renishaw, said, “We can give companies cost-effective, hands-on experience of metal additive manufacturing, combined with application engineering support to optimize their design, and post-processing capabilities to ensure that it performs as it should.”

According to Renishaw’s website, these private development centers come equipped with:

Secure, access-controlled incubator cell
Direct data transfer to AM machines from non-networked computer
Dedicated Renishaw additive manufacturing system
Choice of materials, with the option to use your own powder
Dedicated powder handling accessories to ensure purity
Predicated costs and no overheads
Access to expert Renishaw engineers and technicians
Optional access to finishing processes, metrology and material analysis

Renishaw is one of the biggest names in metal additive manufacturing, which is definitely the way of the future. According to the latest bulletins from Additive Manufacturing Research last month, the market for metal additive manufacturing will see continued growth in 2017, and manufacturers will keep looking forward to the next generation of their machine offerings, as well as more complete end-to-end solutions. For materials, nickel alloys are the big name at the moment, and will continue to make a solid impact. We’ve also seen some really interesting additive manufacturing metal powders as well.

Metal AM solutions have many benefits: the process allowed Renault Trucks to reduce the weight of a 4-cylinder engine by 25%, with 200 fewer parts, and lets Jung & Co. save its customers both time and money with spare stainless steel components on demand. The new Markforged metal 3D printing ADAM process is able to produce parts with complex geometry, like closed-cell honeycomb infill, that other techniques are unable to handle.

Some of Renishaw’s successful metal AM solutions include high-performance 3D printed components for the America’s Cup boats and a 3D printed titanium wishbone design for the front suspension system of a Moto2 racecar.

Renishaw has a ribbon-cutting event scheduled for the West Dundee facility in March, and plans to be completely relocated to its new North American headquarters by October. While the physical address will obviously change, all other company contact information, from email addresses to telephone and fax numbers, will stay the same.

As Renishaw continues to get closer to its customers, the company, which already has 70 offices in over 30 countries, is also planning to set up more facilities across the US, including regional sales offices and technical offices.

Howard Salt, President of Renishaw, Inc., said, “With the popularity and adoption of Industry 4.0 and Smart Factory philosophies, our products and services are relevant to a larger and more diverse group of manufacturing operations. These new facilities makes it more feasible, logistically, for us to work cooperatively with customers and potential customers in North America, and develop solutions specific to them.”

Discuss in the Renishaw forum at 3DPB.com.