3D Printed Heat Exchanger Illustrates Siemens' CATCH and Release Approach
Solutions for energy efficiency, sustainability, part repair and more are developing at Siemens’ Charlotte Advanced Technology Collaboration Hub (CATCH) in North Carolina.
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I visited the Charlotte Advanced Technology Collaboration Hub (CATCH) in October 2022 to learn more about the work and scope of this facility created by Siemens. Opened in April of 2022, CATCH is a place for solving real problems through advanced manufacturing technologies, of which additive manufacturing (AM) is first and foremost. But solutions are not meant to be commercialized here — once the problem is solved, it passes back to the customer or collaborator to be productionized.
The CATCH space occupies one end of a larger plant devoted to gas turbine production, and its capabilities include a variety of 3D printing and other technologies to support projects in various materials, sizes and industries. This video shows one example of the types of projects being done here: a topology optimized heat exchanger that captures energy from gas turbine exhaust, created at the request of the Department of Energy.
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