The name of Lovat was a good selling point in many areas and had many fans. Why did Caterpillar decide to drop the name rather than using it as a trading name?
The name Lovat has been a strong name in the tunnelling world for nearly 40 years and has tunnelled more than 2,200km in 25 countries on six continents. At the same time Caterpillar is a Fortune 50 company with a globally recognisable brand, which has been a global market leader in many industries including construction for the last 87 years. The dual branding transition of ‘Lovat a Caterpillar Company’ was in place in 2010-2011 and in February of 2011 the name change to Caterpillar Tunneling Canada Corporation was officially realised.
Customers will realise the same ‘DNA’ in the Caterpillar Tunneling equipment reflective of everything that made Lovat a strong partner but fortified with Caterpillar processes while retaining the capable talent that made Lovat strong. The decision was in part driven from our global branding team who has the responsibility of protecting the Caterpillar brand worldwide but also to show the Caterpillar investment and commitment to construction both above and underground.
Are there plans to exploit Caterpillars strengths and tie up with other production lines such as the tunnel-modified excavator and dump-truck range?
Caterpillar has a vast global footprint of manufacturing and local dealer representatives in nearly every country in the world. The Caterpillar Tunneling product has been historically sold to customers directly but in places where involvement of the local Caterpillar dealership has added value we are exploring leveraging those relationships on a selected basis. This approach enables the possibility of equipment bundling between TBM’s and more traditional surface construction equipment for an end user that desires the entire package from a single reliable source.
There are areas where the broader Caterpillar services have been and will continue to be leveraged to provide TBM customers with additional cash flow solutions. Caterpillar Financial has partnered with Caterpillar Tunneling to enable term financing options and in some cases even a lease or rental option in addition to the traditional TBM direct purchase or purchase with an optional buy back.
The Lovat factory has been massively expanded since joining Caterpillar, what has been the scale of the overall investment in the outfit?
The scale of the investment has been in the tens of millions of US dollars since the acquisition in 2008 to expand and tool up the facilities for more efficient workflow and increased production capacity.
The investments include improvements to the logistics flow within the facility. The machines are now built on an assembly line style system starting at one end of the factory and finishing at the other. To speed up buid time several major purchases were made including a Waldrich Coburg vertical turning machine, which allows the factory to deliver a metro size machine possibly months faster; a Union horizontal boring mill with an eight meter capacity; new computer numerical control machining centres that massively automate the machining of many parts; a 200t crane plus additional new cranes to carry large size components about the facility; An added refurbishment building (1,400sq.m) adjacent to 441 Carlingview Plant (32,050sq.m) dedicated to remanufacturing used client TBMs. Investment includes a rail connection between the two buildings, wash bay with retractable roof and an indoor/outdoor crane that will pick a TBM from the back of a truck; and a new manufacturing logistics centre facility (MLC), which is a 20,440sq.m facility with light manufacturing including cutting tools and production of the large CAT Buckets for the Model 994 Mining Wheel Loader, logistics, large Spare Parts Inventory. State of the art paint booth and new services lines set-up.
In addition, Caterpillar has begun a disc cutter development program utilising proprietary tough steel rings from Caterpillar and a similar ripper tool development, using Caterpillar’s tough steel.
Lovat had a good name for EPB workhorses but was perceived in some quarters as not being up to the tougher jobs. What is being done to counteract this, and to be known for a full-range of TBMs for all ground conditions?
Lovat and now Caterpillar Tunneling have been seen as the right partner for the tough jobs. We have TBM’s in operation from the 1970’s which have been rebuilt three or more times. It is the rare case where a former Lovat and now Caterpillar Tunneling TBM are utilised for a single job. From a design perspective our machines are built to be rebuilt and differentiated by comparatively robust components in key areas including but not exclusively limited to the bearing design life.
There have been several recent examples of former Lovat now Caterpillar Tunneling TBM’s conquering ground, which was not able to be navigated by competitors. The most blatant example was Brightwater in Seattle where our breakthrough was into the hull of the stranded slurry machine. Other examples include John Holland in Australia and CRTG in China where we are overcoming tough ground that our competitors were not able to navigate.
With regard to the question about full range of TBM’s, we have demonstrated our expertise in EPB in mixed ground and under pressures above seven bar. With the recent successes with EPB in ground that slurry technology was less successful it has fortified our position that EPB is the more flexible and total cost solution to the end user and the technology we will continue to advocate. With that said we have quoted and built slurry machines in the past and where best suited for the geology and at request of the client we have that capability. In rock Caterpillar Tunneling continues to offer and manufacture both single and double shield machines on a regular basis. In addition Caterpillar Tunneling offers pipe jacking machine larger than 90 inches.
There is also a rumor going around that Caterpillar is only interested in ‘off-the-shelf’ machines with no project modifications. Is this true?
Always interesting the root of a rumor and how far the telephone game gets you from the truth. Appreciate the opportunity to dispel any concern. All of our tunnel boring machines are made to order. It all starts with the geology and client requirements. Those are examined by our seasoned applications team who then advise the client, their consultants and our own internal engineering staff on the best solution at the lowest cost to conquer the geology and achieve the project goals. When technical proposals are prepared in the initial stages some examples of previous successful designs are shared for reference, this is not in any way a limitation of the possible offerings. While we have standard configurations on construction machinery above ground with set options, the nature of TBM operation underground does not allow standard offerings. With the new edition of the Waldrich and Union equipment it will help us achieve even greater flexibility as well as increased production capacity.
With that said we are working to standardise subcomponent offerings of our machines where appropriate to help lower costs and better delivery times in the aftermarket to maximise TBM uptime.
The intention with this activity is to leverage all of our past experiences with designs and suppliers to formulate the best of breed solutions leveraging that strong history of successes but also the broader buying power of the Caterpillar organisation.
In addition to this we are introducing innovative solutions from broader Caterpillar like incorporation of the unique metallurgy of Caterpillar ‘Tough Steel’ used in tractor sprockets into our cutting tools. The performance of our tough steel disc cutters benefit from this unique metallurgy as the steel is harder but less brittle to elongate time periods between cutter changes.
Lovat had made big inroads into the Russian market. Now that the new organisation will be seen as part of an American conglomerate rather than a Canadian company, is this affecting their marketing there and in the neighboring region?
Even though head office is in the USA, and TBM Manufacturer is in Canada, we are a company that serves the world. Caterpillar is making sustainable progress possible throughout the world regardless of the borders to help build infrastructure to improve the quality of life today and tomorrow.
We have always had a strong relationship with our fellow Russian clients. Since the Caterpillar acquisition of Lovat we have taken significant steps to grow those existing relationships and build a team that is now located in Russia to help with sales and product support in the region. The Russian market represents a significant opportunity and now after the elections the hope is that any hesitation to invest in approved projects will be reinvigorated as economic stability returns to the region.
We currently we have some 20 TBM’s operating in Russia and are actively supporting these machines and our Russian clients with parts and service to maximise their availability and our clients possibility to realise additional business as the region continues to invest in infrastructure.
Many of the major TBM manufactures have opened factories in China to better compete for contracts, what is Caterpillar’s strategy for the region?
With all the recent investment in expanded facilities within North America the initial intention is to maximise the production capacity within our primary facilities. We pride ourselves on our quality and workmanship including in-house testing with clients present prior to shipment to ensure confidence in the quality product that we are producing and components we are sourcing.
With that said the Chinese market is a massive one, which without a local footprint is difficult to effectively compete in. We have machines in operation with BUCG and CRTG in China currently. Historically we have manufactured in China with select joint venture partnerships where needed and will continue to utilise this option when necessary to be competitive in the local Chinese market.
On a broader scale Caterpillar is currently operating 13 Cat factories in China so we are no stranger to the region. In the future when we are ready to expand Caterpillar Tunneling operations within China we can leverage off of the existing factories and local dealerships to broaden our footprint in the tunneling industry.
