The world's first ever 3D-printed excavator was unveiled at the 2017 CONEXPO-CON/AGG show, an international construction trade show, at Las Vegas Convention Center, Tuesday. Made with a range of additive printing processes, the machine is called the Additive Manufacturing Excavator, or AME.

Several institutions, including the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, the National Fluid Power Association, the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power, The OAK Ridge National Laboratory and the National Science Foundation, built the AME. Two research teams of graduate engineering students from Georgia Tech and the University of Minnesota also designed several sections of the excavator, including the cab.

The most important piece of information about the AME is that it actually works, and works well. Not only is the AME set to drastically reduce costs for excavators in general, the designers and builders of the AME envision great things for its future. It could be used in helping to rebuild lower income communities and may even play a role in developing land on Mars for human habitation.