Joint venture extends Caterpillar’s UHD presence in North America.
Caterpillar has added a new dimension to its Ultra High Demolition (UHD) excavator business by leveraging the expertise of Jewell Attachments LLC, which will design and manufacture a new range of UHD excavators, branded APEX, to be sold exclusively through North American Cat dealers.
This latest deal mirrors a similar joint venture struck with with French company Demlone last year which is helping Caterpillar produce UHD demolition specification machines for Europe, Africa and the CIS territories.
The Caterpillar OEM Solutions Group selected Jewel Attachments LLC from a number of potential partners, based on proven capability and dealer/customer acceptance. Jewell is the market leader for high-reach excavator conversions in North America, and the company’s products embody an industry-leading design that incorporates features most requested by users surveyed in Caterpillar’s Voice of the Customer research. The alliance with Jewell provides demolition customers with a range of machines that meets environmental and safety standards and flexible machine configurations.
The new UHD models – APEX 50, APEX 70 and APEX 100 – will use a Caterpillar manufactured carrier (upper structure, lower structure and undercarriage) combined with Jewell UHD fronts, cab-guarding package and Demolition Control System (DCS). The APEX 70 is now available, to be followed by the APEX 100 and APEX 50 in the first and third quarters of 2012, respectively. Caterpillar will continue to offer the demolition customer all other product families available in the current Cat product range through its existing dealer network.
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