Komatsu

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(from wikipedia entry, revision required, with redefined links and machine list adding)

A Komatsu PC138us on display at SED 2008

Komatsu is a Japanese company that manufactures construction, mining, and military equipment, industry machinery such as press machines, lasers, and thermoelectric modules.

Komatsu is the world's second largest manufacturer of Construction and Mining Equipment after Caterpillar. However, in certain geographic areas (Japan, China, Middle East), Komatsu has a larger market share than Cat.

Its headquarters is at 2-3-6, Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan.

Its name was taken after the current city of Komatsu, Ishikawa at the company's foundation there in 1917. Its main plants are located in the city.

Komatsu makes the largest bulldozer in production the world, the D575, the Italian company Umberto ACCO built a one off machine of 1300 hp, weighing in at 183 ton, for a contract in Libya, which never too place.

[edit] History

Komatsu Iron Works was started by Takeuchi Mining Industry as a subsidiary to make industrial tools for the parent company. Komatsu eventually became large enough to sell to the public, and was spun off on 1921-05-13 as Komatsu Ltd.

Komatsu produced its first agricultural tractor prototype in 1931. Through the 1930s, Komatsu also produced military tractors for the Japanese military, as well as bulldozers, tanks and howitzers. After World War II, Komatsu added non-military bulldozers and forklifts to its line of equipment. Its growth as a company was aided by the strong demand for its bulldozer during Japan's post-war reconstruction in the 1950s. By 1957 they had advanced enough technologically that all of there models were also using Komatsu's own engines.

Komatsu began exporting its products in the 1960s, looking to counteract the postwar image of Japanese products as being cheap and poorly made, and entered the U.S. market in July 1967, taking on Caterpillar, the world's largest bulldozer maker, in its home market, under the leadership of President Yashinari Kawai. Komatsu did so under the rallying cry "Maru-C", translating into English as "encircle Caterpillar" (in the context of Go (board game) encircling an opponent results in capture of their territory).

Komatsu and Dresser Industries established Komatsu Dresser to make mining tractors and related equipment. This 50–50 ownership lasted from September 1988 to August 1994, when Komatsu bought out Dresser's share, and Komatsu's mining products were consolidated under the name Komatsu Mining Systems in 1997. To prevent brand name confusion due to the corporate changes, the name "Haulpak" is used for the product line Komatsu began with Dresser.

During the 1990s Komatsu had a joint venture in Europe with Moxy were Komatsu designed ADTs were built under license for the European market by Moxy. (in 2008 Moxy was taken over by Doosan of Korea)

Komatsu owns the former Demag range of Mining Machines, which have been upgrades but are basically the same, with the PC3000 being the old Demag H185, of which over 200 have been built under both brands/model nos.

[edit] New Releases

• A new 375 ton Dump truck was released in 2008.
• A hybrid machine the Komatsu PC200-8 Hybrid was released in Japan in June 2008. This machines a s smaller engine and Diesel-electric drive system boosted by a battery pack.

[edit] Komatsu (UK)

Komatsu (UK) was set up in the UK in 1985, and with a factory started manufacturing at Birtley in Co.Durham, England in 1987. The Factory Started by assembling Kits from abroad, but was always to actually build machines from scratch, and today is a major exporter to Europe of Machines in the 13 ton to 75 ton class. They built 3900 machines in 2004 and production has since increased to meet demand at home and for export.

The factory is a full production line fabricating pre cut plate & sheet steel to make the major elements from scratch, like Booms and Frames. The factory is a former Caterpillar plant, that was used to benefit from the North East's Engineering and Fabrication skills base from the ship building & heavy industry.

Engines come from the Cummins Engine factory at Darlington down the road, on a JIT (Just In Time) basis.

[edit] Model Range

[edit] UK Produced

13 crawler machines from 13t to 75t 5 Wheeled machines from 13t to 22t

• Rubber Ducks
• PC130-7
• pc140-7
• PC160-7
• PC450-7
• PC750-7

[edit] Imported Lines

• Hanomag — now a Komatsu subsidiary and build some of the European market models

Dumper trucks

• Komatsu 830E,
• Komatsu 930E,

Bulldozers

Earlier models

• Komatsu D85A - 1970s-80s Bulldozer
• Komatsu D475 - 1986-89 90 ton with 30.8 litres Engine SA8V170 ( A Cummins QSK 30) - 104 built.

,

[edit] Mining Machinery

• Komatsu D575 - Competitor to Caterpillar D11
• Komatsu HD785 - Dump truck similar to Caterpillar 777

[edit] See also

• Construction Plant Manufactures
• Caterpillar
• Demag
• Dresser
• Mining Machines

[edit] References

• Wikipedia for base article
• Earthmovers Magazine (article on Komatsu Birtly factory)

[edit] External links

• Komatsu Global - official site
• http://www.komatsueurope.com/home.cfm?lang_id=en -European site

Template:Komatsu group

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Komatsu Limited. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.