Seeking to follow the same open market sales path as its engine group and more recently its transmission operations have taken, Caterpillar has expanded its hydraulic system and component sales program.
Over the last five years or so, Cat has taken many of its products and services and formed external sales organizations of varying sizes. The engine operations, Cat Logistics and the company's remanufacturing group are probably the best known, but the Peoria, Ill., manufacturer also sells its electronics systems and components, as well as its testing capabilities.
For years, most of Cat's component sales have been centered around Cat OEM Solutions (nee Cat Industrial Products Inc.), which is now the sales and marketing arm for the expanded hydraulic program.
"When you consider that Caterpillar sources over $1 billion in hydraulics annually for Cat machines, and that we've manufactured hydraulics for over 50 years, our expertise in hydraulics is immense," said Randall Blanton, director, advanced electric systems. "Plus, when you look at a machine future where integrated drivetrains are going to be required, and when you consider that, we can supply the engine and complete hydraulic system. Plus, we can supply the electronics to control it all, and then add in our application engineering expertise, our ability to test machines at our proving grounds, ship it, finance it all, our customer value proposition becomes exceptional."
Blanton and Rik Doro, business development manager-hydraulics, outlined an expanded hydraulic sales program that blends Caterpillar-built hydraulics with sourced components to produce complete systems. Targeted markets include off-highway machines, as well as on-highway uses such as the refuse industry and municipal vehicles like construction dump and work trucks.
Within these markets, Doro said Cat is looking at complete hydrostatic transmissions, implement, steering and braking control systems.
"With electronics being the key to making components a complete system, we are really in as good of a position, in terms of the open market, as any other hydraulic supplier," Doro said. "When you add in everything else we can bring to the table--controls, cooling and electrical systems--that's where our hand gets really strong."
Caterpillar manufactures over $500 million of hydraulics annually in four locations, Joliet, Ill.; Sumter, S.C.; Jesi, Italy; and Gosselies, Belgium, that total over 1.4 million sq.ft. The group has 2300 employees worldwide with over 200 dedicated Caterpillar hydraulic engineers.
The Caterpillar-built components include a range of hydraulic cylinders, both threaded and conventional, as well as a new line of position-sensing cylinders that have been successfully used in side-loading refuse truck applications.
The rest of the Cat-built portion of the line include a range of fan drives; electrohydraulic valves; transmission and control valves; gear pumps; piston pumps and motors; and hydraulic tanks and filter bases.
To date, much of Cat's open-market hydraulic success has been with its line of cylinders. The line includes threaded crown, threaded gland or conventional designs with standard bore sizes from 2 to 13 in. and strokes to 118 in. These cylinders are available with position sensing, snubbers, piston bypass and mounting valves.
The position-sensing cylinders have been the most successful products in the line to date and illustrate Blanton and Doro's point about packaging Cat's hydraulic and electronic capabilities.
These cylinders incorporate embedded sensors, which use an electronic control module and proprietary software to provide position feedback to the machine operator. The sensor is encased in the cylinder, providing protection from the often severe operating environment.
Doro said when integrated with Cat electronics, the position-sensing cylinders can automate a variety of mobile equipment functions and allow finite tracking of the cylinder stroke.
Other members of the cylinder line include suspension struts from 35 to 400 ton ratings with rear suspension and steering king pin designs at pressures to 3000 psi. There is also a line of large, telescopic cylinders, 7 in. and larger, available in either two-stage or double- or single-acting configurations at pressures to 4500 psi.
The valve line consists of pilot joystick, directional control (monoblock or sectional) and manifold configurations with flows to 158 gpm and maximum operating pressures to 6000 psi. These valves are typically used for braking, implement control and steering. As with most of the component lines, custom valves are available.
The Cat Hydraulics group has also recently introduced a new range of electrohydraulic valves, the 3PC line, that include closed-center and load-sensing features and are available with integrated ride control. Five spool configurations are available.
