In the News:
AFRICAN PLANTS AND EQUIPMENT DIGEST:
Stolen CAT D6K Found by Interpol Thanks to Installed GPS
Following the discovery of the theft of its recently purchased Caterpillar ® D6K track-type tractor from a site in Essex, UK, at midnight on 14th of February, Sewells Reservoir Construction ltd (SRC), operations manager, Oli Rees immediately contacted local Caterpillar dealer Finning’s out of hours service and support team. Thanks to Product Link on the stolen machine, the team at Finning was able to use the GPS technology within the Product Link system to track the unit’s movements.
To everyone’s surprise it had taken the thieves less than 12 hours to move the D6K from its Essex location, over the English Channel to France. But the biggest surprise was reserved for the thieves themselves, when officers from Interpol located their vehicle in a lorry park just 20 miles from the German border at 6.30pm, the same day.
Caught red handed, the three thieves were arrested by police in possession of the Caterpillar D6K, which was then impounded, much to the delight of Oli Rees who commented: “ I was amazed at how quickly Finning were able to respond to my call. Just ten minutes after my initial call, they rang me back to tell me the team had located our Caterpillar D6K 6.7 miles east of Calais. I couldn’t believe in just a short space of time the thieves had managed to get the unit out of the country. I knew that plant was a major target for theft, but it is now clear to me just how organised these types of criminal gangs are.”
Oli Rees added: “I certainly never expected to see the D6K again and am just so impressed with the actions of Finning’s staff who helped us to retrieve it. What surprised me throughout the whole project was the ability to gain the GPS co-ordinates from the onboard Product Link system.”
A Caterpillar Giant 994D Wheel Loader Gets a Second Life in Belgium!
‘Le Barbare’, or the barbarian, the biggest wheel loader in the Caterpillar range, had already clocked up a respected 48.000 hours of heavy duty in the Belgian quarry Carrieres d’Antoing when a need for a bit of rejuvenation was identified. To carry out this careful operation, the local Caterpillar dealer Bergerat Monnoyeur tore the impressive 193-tonne 994D wheel loader into thousands of pieces, reworked them all and then reassembled the whole machine with new or refreshed parts - in other words, it performed a full rebuild giving the machine a second life and a new warranty.
Carrieres d’Antoing, located close to the city of Tournai, produces some four million tons of limestone a year. Three Caterpillar wheel loaders, 992G, 994F and ‘le Barbare’, the 994D, are used for loading trucks which then transport the limestone on to a crusher. The oldest of the loaders, the 994D, has been working in the quarry since 1993. It went through a revision at 24,000 hours, and last December, seven year later, it was transported to the Bergerat Monnoyeur workshop in Overijse for another revision. This time, eight technicians were dedicated to rebuild the machine from a smallest detail all the way to replacing the engine. Given the monstrous length of 17 meters, width of 5.5 meters and height of 6.5 meters, it’s no wonder it took three months and more than 5000 labor hours to finish the work.
As usual for a machine going through a Cat Certified Rebuild program, the 994D was disassembled, reworked, rebuilt from scratch, and then assembled again. Among many other changes, the original steering wheel was replaced by joysticks and the machine also received a brand new engine. Its technology was updated to the latest state of the art, which extends its life for at least 15,000-20,000 hours to come. The cost of a rebuild is significantly lower than new, varying from 55 to 70 percent of the transaction price of a new machine, which makes the rebuild a good option to consider also in challenging economic conditions.
For more than 80 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been building the world’s infrastructure and, in partnership with its worldwide dealer network, is driving positive and sustainable change on every continent. With 2008 sales and revenues of $51.324 billion, Caterpillar is a technology leader and the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines. More information is available at www.cat.com
Safety Vision's new
SV-1000 PERSONAL DIGITAL VIDEO RECORDER
(DVR). A three-in-one solution, the SV-1000 operates as a flashlight, a still-photo camera, and a handheld video recorder.
On the road or at your destination, you may encounter an incident or environment that
merits a closer look—and maybe even a
permanent record. In such instances, you
might benefit from any one or all three of the
SV-1000's functionalities:
- As a DVR, the SV-1000 allows you to capture the scene, recording up to 2 GB of video and audio data to a miniSD™ card or to 100 MB of available internal storage.
- As a camera, the SV-1000 has 17 infrared LEDs, enabling you to take crisp color photos by day and clear black & white photos in low light.
- As a flashlight, the SV-1000 offers you three brightness levels, allowing you to adjust the amount of light you need to maneuver in the dark.
