We have often come across many construction sites where we get to see huge machines digging up the surface of the earth and throwing off the mud at a place from where it can be collected and dumped at the dump-yard. The machines are of great help to construction workers as they can get the work done in few days which could have otherwise taken months to complete. It also makes sense to think what made the person who gave birth to the idea to build such big machines that brought revolution in the construction industry.
We would be specifically discussing the inception of caterpillar equipments and how it managed to become a brand in such a short time. If we dig deep into history, we’ll find that Caterpillar was formed way back than its inception in the year 1925. The story goes like this. Benjamin Holt, who was the owner of a company that manufactured steam tractors wanted to improve the mobility and grip of the tractors his company produced. He therefore, swapped the wheels with wooden tracks that were fastened with chains. While he was trying his invention out in the field, one of the bystanders looking at his innovation could not resist himself from saying that the machine crawled like a caterpillar. Hearing this, Holt thought that he has now got a name for his invention and this is how the name caterpillar came into existence. In the year 1986, caterpillar changed the name of the company “Caterpillar Tractor Company” to “Caterpillar Inc”.
Caterpillar machines played a pivotal role in the area of construction and building roads. Their journey, since the inception, is filled with achievements that motivated them to produce technologically savvy equipments. They expanded and sold their products both domestically as well as internationally. They sold around 93 Caterpillar equipments to the Indian government to help them build better roads. In the same fashion, their machines also helped Venezuela to construct a 10.5 mile superhighway through the Andes Mountain. This made life simpler for transporters who had to use the longer way to transport their goods on a daily basis. One of the biggest contributions of these machines was during the 1956 Olympics held at Melbourne. These machines were of huge help as they played a significant role towards the completion of the event sites. The contribution of Cat machines has been phenomenal and it continues to serve the world community with its high-tech know-how and state of the art designs.
Beside the contribution of Caterpillar to the world community, how it grew as a company over the years and its achievements over the last few decades is worth mentioning. Mentor, an Ohio based company was acquired by CAT during its effort to increase its forklift line. There are also few international acquisitions under its belt. They managed to acquire Perkins Limited which was a UK company that produced small diesel engines. They also took over a German company that produced gas and diesel power-driven engines.
CAT is undoubtedly the market leader which has been possible with their consistent endeavor to bring something new to the world and keeping into consideration the benefits of the common man.
