Western Sydney vies for AM hub status with GE Additive partnership

Western Sydney is gearing up to become a central hub for additive manufacturing in Australia thanks in large part to a new partnership between the New South Wales (NSW) Government and GE Additive. The parties recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the aim of developing industrial scale 3D printing solutions at the Western Sydney Aerotropolis.

The agreement was signed yesterday by Gladys Berejiklian, the premier of the NSW Government, at GE Additive’s Customer Experience Center in Munich. The partnership is not only expected to accelerate 3D printing in the Australian city but to create many new jobs across the aerospace, automotive and medical industries.

“3D printing is on the cutting edge of manufacturing globally and this deal will help make Western Sydney the nation’s leader,” Berejiklian said. “Our partnership with GE Additive will create many hi-tech jobs across the aerospace, medical and automotive sectors.”

At GE Additive’s CEC site in Munich, the New South Wales premier was shown the company’s state-of-the-art metal 3D printing solutions as well as a number of applications for the technology, including the mass production of gas turbines for jet engines.

In Australia, and specifically at the Aerotropolis in Western Sydney, industrial 3D printing will play a key role in developing a new space industry hub. In fact, Berejiklian hopes that the partnership with GE Additive will help to realize the government’s goal of tripling the size of Australia’s space sector (up to a worth of $12 billion) by 2030. This massive growth will come with the creation of up to 20,000 new jobs.

“We are very honoured to welcome Premier Berejiklian and the NSW delegation to Munich and equally so to be part of this wider vision for Western Sydney and especially the Aerotropolis precinct,” commented Jason Oliver, President and CEO of GE Additive. “Adopting an ecosystem approach to additive manufacturing makes sense, but given NSW’s rich seam of talent, natural resources and ambition for the future, we are particularly excited at the impact our work together could have, not just in NSW, but nation-wide and more broadly across the APAC region.”

Last December, the NSW Government signed an agreement with 18 local space companies, research and education institutions and CSIRO to setup a new space industry hub at the Aerotropolis. The partnership with GE Additive marks a significant step forward to achieving this goal.