Caterpillar dozers, motor graders and a large wheel loader were on show at WesTrac’s Tomago site in New South Wales, Australia, earlier this month, as the Cat dealer looked to showcase some of the mining OEM’s latest offering.
The annual Mining Equipment Showcase gave customers, trade associations and employees the opportunity to get up close to the latest mining machinery, from March 9-13.
The mining equipment on display this year included the new Cat D11 and Cat D10T2 large track type tractors (dozers), Cat 18M3 and Cat 24 motor graders, and a Cat 994K large wheel loader.
The Cat D11 large dozer, which is already up and running at BHP Mitsubishi Alliance’s (BMA) Blackwater coal mine in Queensland, Australia, comes with an optional 360° camera system to decrease blind spots, plus a factory-fitted fire suppression system, improved access systems and ground level service centres. Cat has said previously that new load-sensing hydraulics and new drive train components deliver up to 8% fuel efficiency gains compared with the previous dozer model.
The Cat 24 motor grader has front and rear cameras for improved visibility, along with a working at heights package that includes handrails and hand holds to improve safe access. It is also the first model in this range that can be fitted with an optional 8.5 m moldboard to allow for either wider grading (and hence less passes) or grading at an increased speed.
It’s Cat 18M3 motor grader has a service access platform for safer means of access to both the operator’s cabin and maintainer’s access to the machine’s engine. Built on the success of the 16 series of motor graders, it has an increased moldboard length over its predecessor.
The Cat 994K wheel loader, meanwhile, has a powered access system that allows operators to maintain three points of contact when boarding the machine. It also boasts a 29% increase in payload, 19% increase in power and 28% boost in breakout force compared with the previous model (994H). It is also, according to WesTrac, a more productive machine than competitor models in the same range.
