Japanese Firm JEOL Joins Neighborhood 91

When Japanese manufacturer JEOL looked around the globe for the best place to station a state-of-the-art additive manufacturing system—the first time it would be placed outside Japan—there was only one place that really felt like home.

On Tuesday, the world-renowned manufacturer of precision industrial equipment unveiled the JAM-5200EBM Electron Beam-Powder Bed Fusion system at Cumberland Additive’s facility at Neighborhood 91, on the campus at Pittsburgh International Airport.

Neighborhood 91 is the world’s first end-to-end additive manufacturing production campus that provides all the elements of advanced manufacturing in one location. Adjacent to four runways at PIT, it has potential for rapid part deployment for customers around the world.

“This collaboration with JEOL signifies a new era in advanced additive manufacturing at Neighborhood 91,” said Cumberland CEO Dawne Hickton. “We look forward to harnessing the capabilities of the JAM-5200EBM E-Beam system and unlocking new possibilities in the world of materials science and 3D printing.”

Robert Pohorenec, president of JEOL USA, said the new partnership with Cumberland is invaluable given JEOL’s relatively recent arrival in the additive manufacturing machine market. He credited The Barnes Group Advisors with building a connection between the two companies.

“When you move into a new neighborhood, you want your children to make friends with the smart kids, and you want to establish associations that will help your child develop into a great adult,” he said at a ribbon-cutting event.

“I can’t imagine being in a finer place.”

JEOL’s electron beam metal system will initially be used to produce titanium alloys but can also manufacture copper and nickel 718 alloys, further enhancing Cumberland’s production capabilities. (Image courtesy of Barnes Group Advisors)

Vince Gastgeb, Chief Corporate and Government Relations Officer at Pittsburgh International Airport, said the announcement is a win both for the region’s additive manufacturing industry and the airport.

“JEOL’s entry to Neighborhood 91, and their partnership with Cumberland Additive, underscores our vision for this campus and the additive manufacturing industry,” Gastgeb said. “This is a collaborative environment where individual companies can succeed together by relying on their shared expertise and assets in a setting that encourages innovation and growth.”

The system installed at Cumberland’s facility carries Serial Number 4; nos. 1-3 are all in Japan, where JEOL was founded almost 75 years ago by scientists developing electron microscopes.

Still headquartered in Tokyo, the company now boasts more than 3,300 employees operating in more than 25 countries and places its products in some of the most elite laboratories in the world, including the University of Oxford and MIT.

The JAM-5200EBM will expand Cumberland’s production capabilities. It will initially focus on titanium alloy but can produce components in copper and nickel 718 alloys with a few minor adaptations.

Cumberland, based in Austin, Texas, announced plans to join N91 in 2021 and opened its facility there in late 2022. Other tenants include Wabtec, HAMR Industries, Metal Powder Works and Arencibia.