Siemens Healthineers will expand and upgrade its Kemnath production facility in Bavaria with an investment of €60 million (over $67 million).

In addition to creating 50 new jobs and upgrading factory parts, the investment will help create new production lines to meet strong demand for medical technologies. This includes radiotherapy devices designed by Varian, which Siemens acquired in early 2021 for $16.4 billion. The deal marked Siemens' return, after over ten years, to the radiotherapy market after its exit in 2011.

Part of the sum will also be used to create a new workshop and acquire new software and equipment to improve in-house training. “We’ll continue to invest in this area to support the future growth of the company and secure our leading position on the market. Our long-term plans for the future represent a clear commitment to the Kemnath location,” Michael Braunreuther, head of the Kemnath production facility at Siemens Healthineers, said in a statement.

Since opening in 1962, the Kemnath plant has grown from being sole a contract-based manufacturer to a Center of Competence for mechatronics that produces large parts for a range of products designed by Siemens Healthineers, including C-arms for angiography systems, tables for MR machines and components for analytics systems used in lab diagnostics.

A new production line for Varian’s linear accelerators will be installed at the site, with the first systems expected to be distributed by as early as fall 2022. This follows a recent 10-year partnership the two signed with Oulu University Hospital in Finland to provide imaging and radiation equipment for cancer treatment, as well as workflow and decision support software.

Siemens will also expand the existing 3D printing Center of Competence there to provide more space and to make more devices. As a result, employees will be able to manufacture individual metal or plastic components right on site.

Additionally, the company will construct a new administration building at the location for about 130 employees that will include a new training workshop and reception area. The building will be CO2-neutral.

The location currently employs over 1,200 people, with the investment adding 50 more, mainly in development and manufacturing. It also recently opened a new logistics facility this month that it built with a €13 million (over $14 million) investment.

In addition to the plant in Kemnath, the company recently built a 57,000 square-meter High Energy Photons Center (HEP) in Forchheim, Germany for €350 million (~$400 million).

Scheduled to begin production in 2023, the site will be used for production, research, development and logistics for X-ray tubes and generators used in CT, angiography and X-ray systems. It is the largest single investment in new construction made by Siemens Healthineers.

In America, the company also just struck a deal with the University of California, San Francisco that will see the creation of the first carbon-neutral radiology imaging service.

Both will use Siemens’ Smart infrastructure solutions to monitor power consumption of radiology equipment at UCSF and research ways to reduce standby energy consumption of MR scanners, as well as new Siemens scanner technology that is greener, lighter, and smaller. The aim is to make radiological imaging more eco-friendly, produce better image quality and create more accessibility to medical imaging in Northern California.