MINExpo 2012

As I said in my previous post, the reason that Andrea and I went to Las Vegas last week was because I wanted to go to the big mining show that's held there every four years. It's called MINExpo, and attracts all the players in the surface and underground mining industry from every corner of the world. Caterpillar puts a huge effort into putting together a world-class exhibit, uses the expo to introduce new products and services, and hosts activities with dealers and customers during and surrounding the three-day event. I was there to enjoy the show.

MINExpo is held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, a sprawling collection of massive halls, meeting rooms, and secret underground tunnels. Well, I don't know about the tunnels, but I do know that it took me two full days to walk the exhibit. I'm sure there were areas that I didn't even catch sight of.

Anyway, did I mention that Cat had a big display? This is what you saw as you entered one of the main entrances to the central exhibit hall. Big. Huger than huge to be more preciser. And very impressive.

The Caterpillar display took up 54,000 square feet - that's about 1.2 acres for you farmers out there - the largest display ever for any exhibitor at a MINExpo. Part of the reason for the large display this year was Cat's recent acquisition of another large mining company, Bucyrus International, which drove a big emphasis on our new line of underground equipment and expanded range of surface mining machines.

This is the line of machines that I work on. The 797F Large Mining Truck below can carry 400 tons of dirt, rock, ore, sand, or jello. At 42 miles an hour. It has lots of other mind-boggling specs - if you are interested, take a look at the brochure on http://mining.cat.com.

The 994H Large Wheel Loader is our largest wheel loader, but not the largest loader in the world. Still impressive to see.

One of the things we gained by the acquisition was a line of hydraulic mining shovels. This is a relatively small one, but significant because it represents the ability Caterpillar has now to match loading tools with our trucks. This machine also causes some mixed feelings because it's the type of machine I would have been working on in Aurora had Caterpillar not acquired Bucyrus.

As large as the Las Vegas Convention Center is, it still can't contain the really, really big stuff. This is a bucket from one of our cable operated shovels. You kind of have to just imagine the rest.

The underground equipment is always strange and fascinating. This is the business end of a continuous miner - essentially a mobile conveyor belt with teeth that can slip along a narrow seam of coal and hog out vast quantities of the stuff.

One of the most interesting and unique pieces of equipment on the Cat floor was a new heavy hauler locomotive from Electro-Motive Diesel, a subsidiary of our wholly-owned subsidiary Progress Rail. Almost as fascinating as seeing a locomotive inside the expo is the video on YouTube of how it got there.

The main reason I wanted to go to MINExpo was to see our competitor's equipment and I definitely wasn't disappointed. I took lots of pictures. One of the most intriguing rigs at the show was the monster Hitachi hydraulic shovel. They had it opened up so you could walk around inside the engine bays and poke at the unimaginably tangled mess of pumps and valves and hoses that all work together to make this beast breathe.

The majority of exhibitors at the show were vendors of some type of support services or equipment for the innumerable 'small' jobs in mining. Ever wonder how you change one of those monster tires on our large trucks? Here's one way.

I thought this slurry pump was interesting. See the guy standing next to the outlet? I'm not sure what kind of motor would be needed to drive a pump this size.

There were lots of manufacturers of odd-looking machines for specialty underground work. This is a dual head roof bolter machine - for attaching stabilizing bolts to the roof of a tunnel. The thing that looks like a roof over the length of the machine is just that; protection to keep loose rocks from falling on the operators. Scary.

Speaking of scary, I also saw the world's largest rototiller. No, really it's a terrain leveler. I guess to make the ground flat. Or maybe to chew up competitive equipment.

You can't build big machines without big bearings. Everybody claimed to have the best.

One more picture. The track links below are similar to what's on the big Hitachi shovel. The pinion gear on the left, maybe one of the two or three needed to swing the top half of that shovel or a drag line around from dig to dump. The guy in the background? Worn out from three days of shopping or selling or schmoozing.

Quite an experience.