Visitors to CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2017 got a chance to see how Cat® Cold Planers put the tons in the trucks hour after hour.

In this CONEXPO interview, Caterpillar Product Expert A.J. Lee talks about how customers have played an important role in Caterpillar’s re-dedication to the products.

“This has been an area of Caterpillar that we’ve taken our time to come back to. It’s over 5-6 years of development and reinvention. Customers are coming to us and saying, ‘Caterpillar, where are your mills at? We want your values, your serviceability and your service support in our milling business. And so, (we did) a lot of operator sessions, a lot of job site videos, visits, coming back and forth with customers, bringing them to the factory, virtual reviews, in-the-iron reviews with dealers and customers.”

“THIS HAS BEEN AN AREA OF CATERPILLAR THAT WE’VE TAKEN OUR TIME TO COME BACK TO. IT’S OVER 5-6 YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT AND REINVENTION.”

“First and foremost was ease of use. We really worked with the customers to group the controls, having an intuitive touch-button system, touchscreen displays with machine information, diagnostic settings and calibrations, but also integrating the grade and slope through that as well so it’s all in one location. We’re using proportional joystick controls to give an operator a bit of a feel with really good control, whether he wants to make small adjustments or very large increases.”

“One of the biggest feedbacks we’ve gotten as we’ve put these machines to work is that within an hour the operators feel like they’ve been running the machines for a year. We took our time to really do our homework. But we’re excited here to have three mills on the show floor of CONEXPO, representing eight different model and drum chassis lineups.  We’re looking to expand that as we go through the years, and the feedback we’re getting back from the customer is, ‘these are great machines and we want more.’ That’s been exciting for us.”