An invitation to celebrate a century of the world’s most iconic construction machinery brand was not one to turn down. CPN reports from the Costa del Sol.
A trip to Southern Spain’s Malaga is never a bad thing, and certainly when it’s the end of February in the UK, Spain’s sixth largest city offers a welcome change in the weather and invites a sunnier disposition for those visiting.
One destination that is probably not on the tourist trail, though, is Caterpillar’s Malaga Demonstration and Learning Centre (MDLC), a vast campus nestled in the hills behind the city. And it’s here that fifty or so European journalists gathered to celebrate amongst other things, the company’s 100-year anniversary. As much as it was a look at the past, this landmark event was also an opportunity to look forward to the next century because in its own words “we know the work is never done.”
Over the course of two days, we were treated to machine demonstrations, valuable insights into today’s and tomorrow’s technologies and in-depth explanations of the services that are helping Caterpillar’s customers around the globe.
Let’s start with the 100-year anniversary which is being honoured with the release of a limited quantity of machines liveried in “Centennial Grey” – the original machine colour – and featuring special markings denoting 100 years and a commemorative interior plate. We saw the D6XE close up sporting the special paint job and it looked fabulous. So much so that we featured it on the front cover!
What’s next?
Of course, you don’t get to a century of being in business by looking in the rear-view mirror and Caterpillar’s thrust is all about the future and what it can do for its customers’ efficiency, resilience and profitability. Its ‘Next Generation’ philosophy underpins all its machine developments and we saw what one team member described as some of the “biggest, boldest” product introductions.
Among these were the D8 dozer, the 330 UHD, the M323 railroad excavator, the 140 motor grader and the MH3032 material handler. All fantastic looking machines and possibly, more importantly, great examples of
Caterpillar’s attention to detail whether for mainstream or niche applications. The above-mentioned equipment launches formed part of the 17 new introductions the company showcased at the recent Bauma exhibition.
While the hardware was impressive, either in well-choreographed demos or simply stationary, two other topics were covered in depth, namely technology and services. VisionLink is probably the bestknown technology and from being a nice-to-have, it is now standard on any new
Cause for Cat machine. This is a boon for owner/operators and the reason behind it may be that the company wants to see its customers improve their productivity and process optimisation, which to date had grown by less than 1% year-on-year it claims.
Making the grade
There were some other compelling arguments for adopting more technology. An overview of Cat Grade shown to the audience revealed the hugely significant impact grading technology can make. A 10m/30% slope/30cm cut exercise was carried out with the first pass using no technology and the fifth and final pass using Grade 3D with dual GNSS with more technology applied incrementally from pass one to pass five. The figures speak for themselves; with no technology the exercise was completed in 38:58 minutes but with
Grade 3D with dual GNSS this was shrunk to just 11:49 minutes with significantly less fuel used and earth moved more quickly. This worked out as an efficiency boost of 260% according to the company. And with the availability of 3D ready machines, it makes this kind of efficiency improvement readily accessible – all the owner has to do is activate the licence with their dealer when the time is right. Even better is that it is interoperable with other digital infrastructures ie.Topcon and alike.
Keep on running
Of particular interest, to this editor at least, was the presentation on rebuilds and remanufacturing. As someone who visited the Caterpillar reman facility in Shrewsbury back in the 90s, it was interesting to see how the whole reman/rebuild argument has developed.
The centre piece for the session was a 980M wheeled loader that had been completely rebuilt and restored to a fresh-out-of-the-box standard. It really did look in mint condition – you’d never have known it had worked thousands of hours in its first life and yet here it was, ready to embark on its second.
Whatever the misunderstandings and misconceptions about reman and rebuilds, surely enough has been done by the likes of Caterpillar to put people’s mind at rest and that maybe a rebuild is preferable to buying a new machine if the circumstances are right.
After all you’re getting a ‘new’ machine for half or two thirds of the price of a brand-new model, a purchase underpinned by the same as new warranty.
Inevitably, we have had to gloss over other many interesting things we learnt about – Cat Detect technology, Cat Payload, E-Fence, Cat Command – but we shall try to return to these at a later date. What we can say is that look out for The Dig in next month’s issue as he gets first dibs on one of the new Cat CTLs.
Finally praise has to go to the Cat team who put together, organised and directed the event beautifully and a big thank you to Finning for the invitation to celebrate 100 years of Caterpillar.
