CCTC students print replacement parts for Caterpillar

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Seven students enrolled in the engineering design technology program at Central Carolina Technical College have been printing replacement parts and products for Caterpillar Inc. using 3D printers.

The students, known as the Caterpillar Design Team, have been in collaboration with Caterpillar Manufacturing Innovations Engineer Sean Amormino. Through wear and tear on machines at Caterpillar, parts are worn down and become unusable. The cost to replace these worn parts is expensive.

In an effort to save Caterpillar money, CCTC Academic Program Manager for Engineering Design Technology David Tuders put together a team of students to use the program’s 3D printers to replace these parts.

Caterpillar provides the students with the dimensions and material for printing the replacement parts.

“This partnership has helped our productivity and we’re able to achieve so much more through these printing projects with the students at CCTC," said Amormino. "In turn, the students gain the experience of being able to work on parts and materials that will be used in the real world. It’s a great learning opportunity. The benefit to having 3D printing isn’t the fact that it’s cheap, but it’s also very practical”.

CCTC’s Caterpillar Design Team includes Nyaaisjah Samuel, Krysten Nygaard, Aashad Carter, Tonyea Daley, Nathaniel Ray, Robbie Duke and Alexus Olberding.

“This has been an incredible program for my students," said Tuders. "It’s been very beneficial to both Caterpillar and CCTC. My students are able to use these real-world applications in the classroom. Once they graduate and find a job in this field, they’ll be working with an engineer and this is exactly what they’ll be doing."

For more information regarding CCTC’s Engineering Design Technology program please visit cctech.edu/program-of-study/engineering-design-technology-engd/.