Lynda Edwards

USA Today Network, Knoxville

When the group of excited engineers first proposed the trailblazing project to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, they dreamed of construction equipment that could build the first human colony on Mars.

The engineers had just toured ORNL's Manufacturing Demonstration Facility and marveled over a car made by a 3-D printer.

"We wondered if it was possible to send a 3-D printer to Mars, where it could make a mini-excavator that would start the construction for a colony," said Eric Lanke, who was part of that tour back in 2014.

Lanke returned to the lab on Saturday to see the result of that project — the Additive Manufactured Excavator, or AME (pronounced "Amy").

The mini-excavator's 20-foot arm, 30-foot-by-10-foot driver's cab and some of her engine were all printed by a 3-D printer rather than made in a factory.

Lanke and the other engineers who had the inspiration for the AME were members of the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power, one of the professional associations and businesses that collaborate on projects with ORNL. Lonnie Love, ORNL's Manufacturing Systems Research Group leader, helped shepherd AME to its successful conclusion.

The Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Minnesota also worked on the project, thanks to a National Science Foundation grant.

The AME's first trip will be to Las Vegas, not Mars, where it will be a starring attraction at the 2017 CON/EXPO, a construction industry trade show. AME will also serve as Love's ambassador for the rebirth of U.S. manufacturing. Love foresees a future where everything from construction equipment parts and furniture to clothing and medical devices will be made by 3-D printing.

"Project AME demonstrates how 3-D printers will revolutionize manufacturing," Love told Lanke and other guests at a Saturday tour of the facility. "China will no longer be a competitor. We'll be able to make whatever China makes inexpensively and quickly on a 3-D printer anywhere. And there will be no shipping costs."

To the uninitiated, the technology sounds almost like "Star Trek" replicators that fashioned Thanksgiving turkeys and champagne out of air.

But 3-D printers simply use such basic materials as metallic powder, melted carbon pellets and bamboo fibers instead of ink. Just a few years ago, 3-D printers took an entire day to produce a single coffee mug. Today's 3-D printers can make an Army jeep in eight hours.

Guests at the ORNL tour watched a 3-D printer lay one thin line of metallic material atop another, swiftly building a machine part. The printer was tucked inside a transparent tent to protect onlookers from the pungent, burnt smell the printer tends to generate.

ORNL researchers excitedly discussed possibility after possibility. For example, if researchers at an Arctic outpost break a part on a truck, a 3-D printer can make a replacement part. Soldiers who suffer amputations can have limbs duplicated.

The AME excavator driver's cab was the result of a competition among five universities, won by a five-person engineering team from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign. Their prize was $2,000 and a trip to ORNL. Their elegant 3-D-printed cab looked as if it had been forged from a black iron cobweb.

"We were inspired by shapes found in nature like curved and arching tree branches," team member Sharon Tsubasa said.

The cab weighs 150 pounds, about a fourth of the weight of a factory-made cab, but tested sturdier and stronger than other frameworks. Teammates Andrew Peterman and Naomi Audet put the cab through rigorous crash tests.

"We wanted to make sure the driver would be safe," Peterman said.

Team members Kevin Kim and Luke Meyer stress-tested each layer of material.

"When I gave a TED talk, I asked engineering students how many wanted to go into manufacturing. No one raised their hands," Love told the team. "But I hope to convince students with your creativity and resourcefulness to consider revolutionizing American manufacturing."

He told them the properties of materials could be altered by the process, made stronger or more heat-resistant. Design flaws could be spotted by a factory floor worker and corrected immediately using a 3-D printer.

Love believes the rebirth of manufacturing would mean more American jobs, even though 3-D printing requires fewer workers than an assembly line. He has hired several veterans.

"Marines are my favorite workers because they know how to follow procedures, be team players, fix things on the spot when they break down and they aren't afraid to handle a million-dollar machine," Love said.

Lanke said he believes former factory workers can adapt to the demands of 3-D printing for manufacturing.

"I think the future manufacturing worker will be a hybrid of a technician and someone who understands basic engineering design principles," Lanke said. "Engineering and design will always need the human factor. Robots, artificial intelligence, cannot provide the creativity."