Caterpillar Plant Tour

[RyanbabZ71]

Yesterday we had an ASME conference tour in Lafayette.  We took a 2 hr tour of the massive (4 acres total only 2 being used) caterpillar engine plant.  These things are huge.  it is awesome to see something so massive being assembled.  The pistons on their largest engine is about the size of a 5 gallon bucket.  Also they make a V-8, V-12, V-16, and V-20 (and some inline 8s and 12s)

 

In 1983, Caterpillar opened the doors of the 1,500,000 sq ft (140,000 sq m) Lafayette, Indiana plant, which manufactures the largest diesel engines Caterpillar has ever produced, the 3500 and 3600 Series Diesel Engines. The 3500 Series covers a horsepower range from 600 hp (448 kW) to 2200 hp (1641 kW), and the 3600 Series goes from 1900 hp (1420 kW) to 7,300 hp (5450 kW). Both diesel and spark ignited versions of each engine family are manufactured at Lafayette. Caterpillar is the world’s largest manufacturer of gaseous fueled engines. (Natural gas, methane, propane, etc., also refered to as spark ignited engines.)

 

Id love to put one of these in my truck  

[antig24]

Cool, sounds like fun.  I've toured a John Deere plant a few times, it was pretty cool too

 

BTW: post 2000 for me

[clk7711]

I'd love to be able to go someday.

[kshuart]

clk7711 - Do you work for a CAT dealer??

[Stepside Z]

That sounds cool. I would love to go on a tour like that.

[Joe C]

Ryan,

 

Do you have any info on the tours? $$$, Times etc.?

[RyanbabZ71]

Info:

 

Well this was for an ASME (american society of mechanical engineers) conference.  It cost me $35 (for the conference, tours, shirt, lunch)

 

From what i gathered they only do tours to like student organizations and customers.  he said they do alot of tours for their foreign customers.  I have no idea how to set one up.  Id imagine it wouldnt be easy

[Stepside Z]

I am glad you had a good time. I would like to tour the Super Duty factory in KY or the IH plant.

[RyanbabZ71]

I would like to tour the Super Duty factory in KY or the IH plant.

 

I applied for a job there last wk (kentucky plant)

 

(However i wont be trading my truck in for a ford )

[General Lee 01]

Moving to  Kentucky Ryan?

[clk7711]

clk7711 - Do you work for a CAT dealer??

No, I work for a big contractor who runs mainly CAT equipment. Over 150 different machines. I work in the maintence dept and love working around heavy machinery. Only a Hitachi excavator can compete with a CAT.

[kshuart]

Glad to hear your support for CAT. I worked for Cummins Corporate for 7 years, but last year moved and took a job as a Foreman at a CAT dealer in the component rebuild facility for the Machine Division (Heavy Equip). I'm still learning a lot about the machines and CAT specific things, but it's awesome to be around that stuff on a daily basis.

[Shaners]

Those big diesels are pretty impressive!!!  

 

However, since I have been building these things for almost 15 years, the novelty has worn off...  

[RyanbabZ71]

what i thought was very impressive also was how many used engines they had (broke down ones which dealers returned to cat).  They are all taken apart inspected.  Many parts are thrown away and what is reused is thoroughly cleaned.  Then they put it back together mainly with brand new parts and they are resold at about 3/4 of the cost of a new one (but basically it is a brand new hand built engine).  They had a bunch of them in the plant (couldnt even tell how many).  Alot of them were pretty new (less than a yr old) but looked like they were 30 yrs old.  Most are ran 24/7 till they die.

[k1500chevy97]

Sounds  :thumb: