Collaborative project brings operational 3-D printed excavator one step closer to reality

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), Milwaukee, has announced the recent 3-D printing of a prototype excavator using large-scale additive manufacturing technologies.

Known as Project AME (Additive Manufactured Excavator), the excavator is being 3-D printed in three components—cab, boom, and heat exchanger—using various machines at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL’s) Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF). The boom will be fabricated using a newly developed free-form additive manufacturing technique to print large-scale metal components.

The excavator is a collaboration among AEM, National Fluid Power Association, Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power, ORNL, the National Science Foundation, and several universities. The project is supported by the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy – Advanced Manufacturing Office.

A Georgia Tech research team designed the steel boom, stick, and bucket. A student engineering team from the University of Illinois designed the cab. A research team from the University of Minnesota is responsible for the aluminum-powder bed 3-D-printed oil cooler design.