Tag Archives: Hitachi

How did they come up with their construction equipment names? i.e. Caterpillar, Hitachi, Case, John Deere

At some point in time in our lives, we must have wondered why the names of heavy equipment manufacturing companies so unusual. For instance, why would someone ever want the name of their company to be caterpillar? Caterpillar is such a small create and why would a heavy equipment company who has big dreams and intend to grow in the coming years would want to keep the name of such a creature. Same goes with the names of other construction equipment manufacturing companies. Names like Case, Hitachi, John Deere etc. are all examples of names that somehow do not seem to fit with the size and fame of the company. But they still have them and are doing absolutely wonderful.

In order to understand why these companies have such strange names, it is important that we take a tour of their histories and try to understand the real meanings of these names.

Caterpillar:-

Let us start with Caterpillar. It is said that this name was given by a company photographer named “Charles Clements”. It was in the year 1925, when Holt Tractor Company the pioneer in the field of heavy equipment merged with Best Tractor Company. It was then that Charles Clements cried loudly that the machine is crawling like a Caterpillar. Since then the name stuck with the company and has eventually formed into one big incorporation.

John Deere:-

When we talk about the John Deere, we actually mean the heavy equipment company that is in the name of John Deere. If we check his history he was an able blacksmith who doing pretty well in the state of Illinois. But he had taken up a challenge of using a better form of equipment to plow the tough prairie soil of Illinois. Therefore, he invented the self-scouring steel plow that made lives comfortable for the farmers of that area. However, it was only in 1837 that he successfully manufactured the first commercial steel plow. He sold that piece of metal to a local farmer who found it extremely convenient and spread the word to more people in the vicinity. He went into a partnership but that did not last long and had to come out of it. Things did not stop for him there and he continued his good work thereby producing more of such machines. He was of the belief that he will produce the best of machines for his consumers. Eventually in 1868, he incorporated his company.

Hitachi:-

Like many others, Hitachi also has an interesting story behind its name. It was founded in 1910 by Namihei Odaira. He was an electrical engineer by profession. The product that the company manufactured for the first time was an electric induction motor that was predominantly used for mining copper. The company started with its operation in a mining company located in Hitachi, Ibaraki. The name “Hitachi” also means “Sunrise”. This is how they stuck to the name of Hitachi and from there they started their journey from selling hard disk drive subsidiary to construction equipment to all over the world.

Loader Backhoe – How Useful Are They in the Construction Industry

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A number of heavy equipments have proved their utility in the construction business but there are certain equipments which are of utter importance and without which it is unimaginable to work in this industry. Out of those few, we would be discussing about Loader Backhoe, also known as a digger or simply “Backhoe”. Let us first understand what exactly it is. A Loader Backhoe is ideally a heavy equipment that has a tractor with a built-in bucket in the front and a backhoe at the rear. The backhoe loaders are not very big in size which is why they are quite versatile on the fields and is often seen as one of the best equipment in small sized construction projects. However, that doesn’t lessen its importance in bigger projects and may carry equal weight as far as the performance is concerned.
The Backhoe Loader was invented by Joseph Cyrill Bamford in the UK in 1953. During those days, heavy equipments were not multi-functional and one type of machine was made to do just one work. Somehow the idea of multi-tasking stuck Joseph’s mind and he removed the tractor from his barn and tried to install a shovel in the front and a backhoe in the rear of his tractor. He found this idea to be very interesting and thought that people who are into agriculture will find this very helpful. This is how after giving some final touches to his craft, he started to manufacture more and more of these machines. Though few external appliances are added on the tractor, still the equipment is not called a tractor but a loader backhoe as it gives altogether a different look to the machine. This equipment is popularly known as “JCB” in the UK. However, back in US, they call it as “Backhoes”.
Backhoe Loaders are of multiple usages but is primarily used to clear snow off the road or to move earth by using the shovel and digging it deep in the earth, take off the mud, fill it in the bucket and dump it in the truck. They are also used for other works such as constructing or demolishing small houses, transportation of materials which are not too huge and heavy in proportion to the machine, excavating earth, paving roads and so on. The attachments built in the machines can be easily replaced if they get faulty. For instance, the bucket can be replaced by grapple or a stump grinder. These attachments are much more powerful that the bucket and may prove to be highly effective in getting the work done.
Some of the buckets are built like a clamshell which helps it to unload the mud quickly. These attachments are the result of those innovative engineers who actually knew the importance of this machine and believed that a bit of innovation will turn out to be very helpful to the consumers.
Just to name a few companies that produce Loader Backhoe are Caterpillar, John Deere, J. C. B. , Hitachi, Volvo etc. This is probably the machine which every construction company irrespective of how big or small their businesses are would like to have with them.