WorldWide Drilling Resource

Is 3-D Printing the Future of Equipment Manufacturing? Adapted from Information by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers and Oak Ridge National Laboratory Last year’s CONEXPO-CON/AGG event featured the world’s first 3-D printed excavator. So, what is the future of 3-D printing for the equipment industry? The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) was part of the team effort which developed the state-of-the-art excavator and says there are three main things to keep in mind when considering 3-D printing and its potential for equipment manufacturing. 1. It has enormous potential, but it is still growing and evolving. The consensus right now among leading additive manufacturing experts is the technol- ogy’s immediate potential can be most readily found in smaller-scale deployments, according to Dr. Lonnie Love, corporate research fellow at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). According to Love, 3-D printing is not going to change manufacturing overnight, “It’s not going to displace casting. It’s not going to displace welding,” he stated. One of the obstacles is 3-D printing isn’t fast enough yet. “When you make these great parts at low volumes, you don’t care that it takes a week or a month . . . but we’ve got to go faster because it drives the productivity up and the costs down.” 2. 3-D printing can help manufacturers do things they’ve never done before. There is no doubt the technology has incredible capabilites for manufacturers. Dubbed Project AME (Additive Manufactured Excavator), Love and his colleagues at ORNL used the technology to print the 3-D excavator using a variety of machines to create and assemble three components: a cab, a boom, and a heat exchanger. The boom was created using a cutting-edge free-form additive manufacturing tech- nique to print large-scale metal components. By using different machines, materials, and processes, researchers were able to demonstrate the seamless integration of all the parts work- ing together in one excavator. The success of the project proved the potential of 3-D printing technology is endless. 3. This technology can help manufacturers be more efficient and save money. The production of molds, jigs, and fixtures used in the mass production of heavy equip- ment typically takes months, is costly, and often involves tooling companies based overseas. The widespread adop- tion of additive manufacturing could change that. “This may be a mechanism to rapidly get tooling back in the U.S.,” Love stated. “To make it take days and not months. It costs thou- sands instead of hundreds of thousands. We’ve already proven this on the automotive and aerospace sides. Now it’s time to take a look at construction and see where it fits.” Although the equipment industry currently designs and builds machinery which is used for decades, manufacturers spend a great deal of money to keep an inven- tory of spare parts to meet customer needs. With 3-D printing technology, companies will be able to cut the over- head costs and warehouse space. “The advantage of this technology is you could actually print a replacement part without having to have that inventory,” he said. “That, to me, has tremendous potential.” 30 JANUARY 2019 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® To see all the photos from this event, go to www.worldwidedrillingresource.com or click here. Feel free to download at will and print the photo(s) of your choice. Compliments of WorldWide Drilling Resource ® . Photos are copyrighted and released for personal use only - no commercial use permitted. Open the Doorway to all the Event Photos during PBIOS 2018. Diagram courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Photo courtesy of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. March Issue Deadlines! Space Reservation: January 25 th Display & Classified Ad Copy: February 1 st C&G