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Caterpillar Inc. officially turns 100 years on April 15, marking a century of customer-focused innovation and industry-leading transformation. When customers choose Caterpillar products, services and solutions today, they also gain 100 years of experience and expertise.
During the mid-19th century, Caterpillars founders, C.L. Best and Benjamin Holt, were competitors on parallel paths. Benjamin Holt invented a steam tractor to keep farmers working and more productive longer and cheaper than horses could. The invention of the track-type tractor – today’s dozer – is Benjamin Holt’s most significant engineering invention. Replacing wheels with tracks allowed heavy steam tractors to more easily prepare agricultural fields without getting stuck in soggy peat soil.
While Holt was famous for the development of the first commercially successful track-type machines, the rival C.L. Best Tractor Company took a different approach and responded to customer needs with a focus on early gasoline technology. Their technological improvements made products more reliable and increased performance. Best’s revolutionary undercarriage design was so ahead of its time that some of the features remain part of today’s Caterpillar tractor DNA.
The Holt Manufacturing Company and C.L. Best Tractor Co. merged to form what was then known as Caterpillar Tractor Co. in 1925. From the company's first tracked tractor designed to pull combine harvesters in Northern California to autonomous construction and mining equipment and engines that power the world today, Caterpillar's products and services have helped their customers complete infrastructure projects that have shaped the modern world.
The most significant engineering innovation attributed to Benjamin Holt, one of the Caterpillar founders, was the invention of the first commercially successful track-type tractor – today’s dozer. This invention not only became one of the cornerstone products, but its development also led to the company name.
The name "Caterpillar" originated from an observation made by company photographer Charlie Clements in 1905. While photographing one of Benjamin Holt's early track-type tractors, Clements noted that the machine crawled like a "big caterpillar" due to its undulating movement. This name stuck and became synonymous with the company's groundbreaking earthmoving equipment.
In 1925, the company adopted a red wavy "Caterpillar" logo, and the machines were painted battleship gray. But they didn't stay that way for long. The machines went from gray with red trim to Hi-Way Yellow with black trim in 1931. In 1979, Hi-Way Yellow was discontinued and replaced with Caterpillar Yellow, the color our machines and engines are still known for today. Although Caterpillar continued making paint formula adjustments to ensure maximum durability and longevity, the yellow hue remains the same.
Caterpillar recognized the strong potential of the engine business from the very beginning. But it wasn’t until the introduction of the Caterpillar diesel engine that the company’s power business took off. At the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (later renamed The World's Fair) in 1915, Caterpillar senior leaders viewed large stationary diesel engines and recognized the potential. The company soon began developing its own diesel engines to replace gas counterparts in the company’s tractors and selling broadly to OEMs for use in power generation, industrial settings, and marine and other applications. At the time, diesel fuel was about half the cost of gasoline. Since industrial applications often required engines to run around the clock, the savings were significant. In addition, diesel engines have other advantages, including increased power, durability and fuel economy. The result? In 1931, we completed the first diesel production model, and by 1937, we were the world’s largest producer of diesel engines. It's a leadership position that Caterpillar retains today.
During the Great Depression, consumers desperately needed reliable, cost-efficient products. Knowing that diesel engines were more powerful than gas engines (while consuming about half the fuel), Caterpillar developed “Old Betsy,” a prototype that would become the first diesel engine, the D9900. Within a few years, Caterpillar was one of the world’s largest producers of diesel engines.
Old Betsy fun facts:
Remanufacturing might just be one of the most important seeds Caterpillar planted in the early 1970s. What began as our narrowly focused effort to remanufacture a single series engine has grown exponentially. Today, manufacturers worldwide recognize and tout the economic and environmental benefits of remanufacturing. But in the early days, there wasn’t much of a model for the remanufacture of engines and other heavy equipment components in the United States.Caterpillar had to make the mold.
In the simplest form, Cat Reman facilitates an exchange business where customers trade a used part for a remanufactured one at a fraction of the price of a new part. Caterpillar then takes the traded-in part (referred to as core), strips it down to the lowest-level component, and puts it through our remanufacturing process – during which it is turned into a completely new component with a new serial number. The remanufactured part can be sold as a remanufactured part or become part of a remanufactured sub-assembly or engine.
Remanufacturing is a perfect fit to support Caterpillar’s strategy of profitable growth, focusing on customer success by allowing customers to purchase like-new parts for a fraction of the cost of buying new.
In addition, remanufacturing cares for the planet by reducing the consumption of raw materials and conserves energy during the process – ultimately supporting our sustainability efforts. Sustainability is one of Caterpillar’s five Values in Action, in line with our legacy of sustainable innovation that spans nearly a century
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