Photo by Jeff Rubenstone for ENR A weakness in global mining has hurt Cat's equipment sales. Construction equipment makers Caterpillar and Terex reported mixed earnings results in the second quarter, with slow global construction sales expected to continue through the second half of 2013. Caterpillar's most profitable segment was its power-systems business, but that was overshadowed by slow sales in its global mining and construction units. Cat's 2013 sales and revenue outlook is now in the range of $56 billion to $58 billion, a decline from an earlier outlook of $57 billion to $61 billion.Terex reported a 5.1% drop in
Related Links: 2013 Ram Pickup Raises Fuel-Economy Bar European Vans Invade Work Truck Show Chrysler's Ram brand has consistently placed third behind Ford and General Motors among pickup-truck consumers and fleet buyers alike. However, with a new focus on the commercial market and several key updates to its heavy-duty pickups, Ram in the past year has increased its pickup market share to 11% from 9%, its executives say. The incremental gain may not put fear into the hearts of the competition, but the momentum continues into the 2014 model year, which promises best-in-class fuel efficiency, handling and capability—as well as
Courtesy Mack Trucks Mack plans to start building DME-powered trucks in 2015. Related Links: Truck Quality Suffers From Cleaner Diesels Are Clean-Diesel Engine Rules Stifling Innovation? Add U.S. construction-company fleet managers to the list of possible beneficiaries of the growing national gas boom, but the payoff is at least two years away. Dimethyl ether, a diesel replacement product that can be made from a variety of chemical feedstocks, could power a new line of heavy-duty trucks due in 2015 from a Volvo North America and Mack Truck partnership.Natural gas will be the primary raw material used in dimethyl ether (DME)
In an industry that is slowly embracing alternative energy for heavy equipment, John Deere's Construction & Forestry division has thrown its hat into the hybrid ring with its new 644K Hybrid wheel loader, which uses a diesel engine to power an electric drive system that burns up to 25% less fuel.
Much of the June 12 federal lawsuit that Manitowoc Cranes LLC has filed against Sany America Inc. discusses veteran crane engineer John Lanning's departure from Manitowoc to help Sany bring crawler cranes to the American market.
Photo Courtesy NEORSD Talking Heads Project owners are using Twitter to update the public by speaking for the tunnel-boring machines. Above is Mackenzie, northeast Ohio's 1,500-ton TBM, showing its yellow-and-green cutter head. Related Links: Q&A: Ten Minutes With Tunnel Boring Machines That Tweet Barnhart Modular Lift Tower Positions Seattle TBM Perhaps not since Bob the Builder have so many pieces of heavy construction equipment had so much to talk about. Instead of miniature, voice-overed claymation figures on a children's television show, Twitter is featuring actual tunnel-boring machines deployed at jobsites across the U.S. With some help from their human colleagues
Twitter Bertha, which claims to be the world's largest diameter TBM, has more than 3,500 followers on Twitter. Related Links: People Dig Tunnel Boring Machines That Tweet Barnhart Modular Lift Tower Positions Seattle TBM Project owners are using social media, such as Twitter, to gain public awareness about their construction work. As such, several tunnel boring machines (TBMs) are carving out some time to share their "observations" with the Twitterverse. We recently held an offline chat with the Tweeting TBMs about their experiences; their answers follow below.ENR: How do you work Tweeting into your busy project schedule?@BerthaDigsSR99: It’s a challenge
The 60-year-old family-owned company now is set to emerge from bankruptcy with its leadership intact. Related Links: How Ahern Rentals Landed in Bankruptcy Vegas' CityCenter Eyes Rocky Finish After 18 months in bankruptcy over $620 million in debt, Don F. Ahern is breathing a heavy sigh of relief. Ahern, who is president of the country's largest private construction-equipment rental company, received approval on June 5 for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy exit plan in federal court in Reno, Nev. As part of the deal, Ahern will remain at the helm of 60-year-old Ahern Rentals Inc.The Las Vegas-based
Barnhart/Dawn Paul Barnhart's modular lift tower placed the TBM's 745-ton cutterhead on May 31. Related Links: Bertha to Dig This Summer Follow Bertha on Twitter Lowering a 7,000-ton tunnel-boring machine piece by piece into an 80-ft-deep launch pit sloped 3° forced Barnhart Crane and Rigging to think outside the boom. The subcontractor working at the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle opted to use a modular lift tower instead of a conventional crawler crane, saving millions of dollars and valuable site space.The largest tunneling machine built for North America, Bertha—a 57.5-ft-dia unit—will this summer bore a 1.7-mile-long tunnel to replace the
Photo by Tudor Van Hampton for ENR Ford's 3.5-liter EcoBoost engine uses turbochargers and direct injection to deliver V-8-like power and torque with the fuel economy rating of a V-6. Related Links: Test Drive: 2011 Ford F-150 (ENR) Feds Probe Ford F-150 EcoBoost (USA Today) The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is looking into nearly 100 complaints related to the performance of Ford Motor Co.'s popular EcoBoost engine. Consumers driving the turbocharged V-6 in F-150 pickups allege "unexpected, sharp reductions in engine power during hard accelerations at highway speeds," according to NHTSA.Since the 3.5-liter V-6 was introduced in 2011, Ford
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