With the goal of spurring innovation to address customers’ engineering design challenges and accelerating speed to market for new, rigorously-tested products, Emerson (St. Luois, Mo.; www.emerson.com) opened an advanced additive manufacturing center at its Singapore campus. This is Emerson’s second location to have additive manufacturing capabilities (making 3D objects from a digital model).
Additive manufacturing significantly accelerates the testing of multiple versions of a prototype product or part, and promises to greatly simplify the production supply chain. Through this center, Emerson will be using additive manufacturing technologies to produce special customized and application-specific parts and products which are impossible with traditional technology.
The Singapore center serves to strengthen Emerson’s additive manufacturing program, which was launched three years ago with the opening of its first additive manufacturing technology center in Marshalltown, Iowa, USA, the global headquarters for its Fisher™ products. Together, the Marshalltown and Singapore centers are actively working on research and development and pilot production services for all Emerson businesses around the world.
Singapore was selected for this additive manufacturing center because of its strong manufacturing ecosystem, favorable business climate, excellent transportation linkages, an educated workforce and good universities, and robust intellectual property protections.
“This Singapore center, along with our Marshalltown center, will play a key role in helping Emerson move quickly to leverage the benefits of additive manufacturing to meet our customers’ needs in Asia Pacific and around the world,” said David Farr, chairman and CEO of Emerson. “We greatly appreciate the support of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), which has been a great partner and gave us the confidence to make the investment here.”
In conjunction with the launch of its additive manufacturing center in Singapore, Emerson has entered into a five-year research collaboration agreement with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), a world-leading research-intensive university. Postgraduate students from NTU will be able to get real-world training in additive manufacturing at the Emerson center and carry out product research projects.
Mr. Lim Kok Kiang, assistant managing director of the Singapore EDB, said: “We are pleased to partner with Emerson in the opening of its new additive manufacturing center, which will help enhance Singapore’s standing as an internationally recognized hub for high-tech manufacturing excellence. This global center will not only raise our international competitiveness, but also contribute towards the grooming of skilled Singaporean talent in the area of advanced manufacturing.”