GE Opens $39M Additive Manufacturing Center

PITTSBURGH — GE celebrated the grand opening this week of an advanced manufacturing research center that will drive innovation and implementation of additive manufacturing across the company.

The Center for Additive Technology Advancement (CATA) – built in Findlay Township – will be the company’s flagship center for additive manufacturing, focused on developing and implementing industrial applications from which all GE businesses can benefit.

“It’s going to be an amazing place,” GE’s chairman and CEO, Jeff Immelt, said.

The new center represents a $39 million investment over three years and will result in the creation of 50 high-tech engineering jobs initially, in disciplines ranging from mechanical and electrical to systems and software engineering. This is GE’s first multi-modal site in the U.S., designed as an innovation hub offering training and development in both design and applications, the company said.

GE marked the occasion with a program attended by Immelt, its chief productivity officer, Philippe Cochet, representatives from Youngstown-based America Makes, government officials and customers.

“The Pittsburgh community represents the future of industry with its strong pool of talent and academia. GE is proud to partner with the community, and to call Pittsburgh home to one of our innovation hubs,” Cochet said. “The application of insights from digital connectivity in collaboration with intelligent devices will elevate the skills of our workforce, streamline productivity and enhance product development overall. This represents a new era of manufacturing.”

GE described the new research center as reflecting its “belief that the intersection of technology and manufacturing – marrying hardware with software – will change the way we create, iterate and service products … CATA will combine lean manufacturing and optimal productivity with advanced software analytics to improve capabilities and usage of additive manufacturing across GE while advancing materials sciences and inspection technologies.”

In conjunction with the opening, GE released a white paper, “The Future Workforce: Advanced Manufacturing’s Impact on the Economy,” detailing advanced manufacturing’s positive impact on jobs and in shaping the future of work. The white paper noted advanced manufacturing accounts for 13% of all jobs in the U.S. and contributes $3.1 trillion to the economy. In addition, for every advanced manufacturing job created, 3.5 jobs are supported through the supply chain, and the average salary for a technologist in the industry is $95,000.

“With Pittsburgh’s developing tech sector, Pennsylvania is the perfect home for GE’s Additive Manufacturing Center,” said Gov. Tom Wolf. “We welcome GE’s investment in the state with opening this new manufacturing facility and the promise of new jobs to the greater Pittsburgh region.”

 

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