ORNL’s Project AME, First Fully Functional 3D Printed Excavator, Unveiled at Las Vegas Expo

IMTS

Share this Article

ornl-logoThere’s 3D printed Lego construction equipment…and then there’s Project AME, the first fully functional, full-size 3D printed excavator in the world. We have been following Project AME’s progress for nearly a year: AME stands for Additive Manufactured Excavator, and was developed as a joint collaboration between Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), National Fluid Power Association (NFPA), the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Research teams of graduating engineering students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), the University of Minnesota, and Georgia Tech also worked on Project AME.

project-ame-contributors

The excavator, a prototype to demonstrate what’s possible in terms of large-scale additive materials technologies, proved without a doubt that it is feasible to 3D print with metal alloys, and was finally unveiled and demonstrated yesterday at CONEXPO-CON/AGG (aptly themed Imagine What’s Next) and IFPE 2017 in Las Vegas.

project-ameProject AME was funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy – Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO), which supports development, applied research, and demonstration of new processes and materials for energy efficient manufacturing. All of the university students, industry partners, and ORNL researchers worked together, in order to design and fabricate Project AME, which is the first large-scale use of steel in a 3D printing application. The project was a learning experience, not only for the students, but also for the researchers and engineers who work with additive manufacturing all the time.

Lonnie Love, group leader of ORNL’s Manufacturing Systems Research Group, said, “The beauty of a project of this size and scope is that it brings together many intelligent people to work on a number of challenges while accomplishing a common goal.”

closeup-project-ameLove directed the student research teams while they worked to adapt a basic compact excavator design and create plans to additively manufacture the excavator’s cab (its Voronoi design was developed by UIUC students), hydraulic oil reservoir, cooling system, hydraulically articulated work arm (also known as the stick), heat exchanger, bucket, and boom.

The engineering students from UIUC won a contest to design the excavator’s cab, and had the opportunity to actually see their designs being built, in person, on the large-scale 3D printing equipment at the Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF), which is housed at ORNL.

“While hundreds of people, many of whom are students, visit the MDF each year, this is the first student group to watch their design 3D printed on one of our large-scale machines. We’re also exposing them to the possibilities that additive manufacturing is affording industry that can help companies from so many different areas whether it’s automotive, construction or other applications yet to be discovered,” said Love.

3d-printed-components-of-excavatorLove spoke to the crowd at the expo yesterday about how 3D fabrication will continue to benefit the construction industry in the future, and what can be accomplished by working together to develop new ideas for the industry.

“Trade associations like the Association of Equipment Manufacturers and the National Fluid Power Association help to foster collaboration and innovation between people and companies inside our respective industries. Project AME should be held up as an example of what can be accomplished when we are able to bring together competitors to innovate ideas for the betterment of the industry as a whole,” Love said.

project-ame-fully-extended-armDifferent 3D printing materials, platforms and machines (like the Wolf System), and processes were used to build the functional excavator, which is a working demonstration of the “wide range of industrial applications for 3D printing.”

fabricating-ameJohn Rozum, IFPE show director, said, “We’re thrilled to bring such a significant technological and first-of-its-kind achievement like the 3D printed excavator to ConExpo; it will be a platform to demonstrate how the latest innovations and applied technologies are changing the future of the construction industry.”

If you’re at the expo this week, you can stop by the new Tech Experience to check out Project AME for yourself. You can also check out the Project AME overview video below:

Discuss in the ORNL forum at 3DPB.com.

[Sources: Construction Equipment, CONEXPO-CON/AGG, ORNL / Images: ORNL]

 

Share this Article


Recent News

Will There Be a Desktop Manufacturing Revolution outside of 3D Printing?

Know Your Würth: CEO AJ Strandquist on How Würth Additive Can Change 3D Printing



Categories

3D Design

3D Printed Art

3D Printed Food

3D Printed Guns


You May Also Like

Featured

Pressing Refresh: What CEO Brad Kreger and Velo3D Have Learned About Running a 3D Printing Company

To whatever extent a business is successful thanks to specialization, businesses will nonetheless always be holistic entities. A company isn’t a bunch of compartments that all happen to share the...

Würth Additive Launches Digital Inventory Services Platform Driven by 3D Printing

Last week, at the Additive Manufacturing Users’ Group (AMUG) Conference in Chicago (March 10-14), Würth Additive Group (WAG) launched its new inventory management platform, Digital Inventory Services (DIS). WAG is...

Featured

Hypersonic Heats Up: CEO Joe Laurienti on the Success of Ursa Major’s 3D Printed Engine

“It’s only been about 24 hours now, so I’m still digesting it,” Joe Laurienti said. But even via Zoom, it was easy to notice that the CEO was satisfied. The...

Featured

3D Printing’s Next Generation of Leadership: A Conversation with Additive Minds’ Dr. Gregory Hayes

It’s easy to forget sometimes that social media isn’t reality. So, at the end of 2023, when a burst of doom and gloom started to spread across the Western world’s...