Caterpillar®
Caterpillar is the world its leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel & natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and locomotives. | ![]() |
Why did Caterpillar® choose for ProSuite®
Caterpillar® was coping with two problems. First of all, they needed a real-time location system to ensure its hydraulic valves and hoses are assembled properly. Until we implemented ProSuite®, the tightening was adjusted using a manual torque wrench. Secondly they wanted to have full traceability of the tightening tools. We provided them with our product ProTightTM that was already widely used in other departments. ProTightTM is developped to control and monitor nutrunner tightenings in the CAT environment. The aim was to use the same version for all different tightening applications. In this case our ProTightTM consisted of a PC application, a PLC application connected to the tools and to and Oracle DB server. The software enables the operator to put his id-number and key details in. Key details can be the type of work he's going to conduct, the serial numbers of the components he's going to use, ... The main purpose of the system is to properly tighten the bolts and this with the right tool. Therefore Caterpillar® changed their assembly process, they reorganized the shop floor and changed made sure every tightening tool was compatible with our software, which wasn't such a problem due to the big variety of brands that ProSuite® supports. The majority of hydraulic valves and hoses are now being found to be properly assembled when tested, even with a higher accuracy rate than the one that the company ever had experienced in the past. ProSuite® also has led to 20% less rework on leaking valves discovered during the testing process.
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