Caterpillar delivers 25,000th wheeled excavator

Premium Content
Sarah Ann McCay

06 September 2012

From left to right: Peter Gerstmann, Zeppelin CEO; Werner Baumann, BMTI CEO; Bernd Karsten, technica

From left to right: Peter Gerstmann, Zeppelin CEO; Werner Baumann, BMTI CEO; Bernd Karsten, technical director, BMTI North; Brian Abbott, director of Caterpillar European Excavator Design Centre and e

German Caterpillar dealer Zeppelin has sold the 25,000th wheeled excavator manufactured by the company to BMTI, a subsidiary of Strabag, based in Austria. Senior executives from BMTI took delivery of the new machine from Zeppelin's headquarters in Garching, near Munich at the end of August.

First designed in 1995, Caterpillar's wheeled excavator range is now available in seven models, ranging from 13 to 22 tonnes, as well as two material handlers. The mobile machine can be driven up to 37 km/h on public roads, and is well-suited to working in urban areas.

BMTI requested a unit that could work on biodegradable hydraulic oil and lubricants as the machines sometimes have to operate in environmentally sensitive areas.

The company operates a fleet of 800 Caterpillar machines, including a substantial proportion of excavators. Its new wheeled excavator is already being put to work at Hamburg airport where it is assisting with airport maintenance and repair work on the runway.

Southwest Industrial Rigging gets new owner and leadership team
Entering a new era but aspiring to continue Harry Baker’s legacy
Trail King debuts automatic kingpin steering trailers
New trio hailed as a fundamental shift in heavy-haul equipment design
How a modular test system overcame a genset bottleneck
When rising demand threatened to outpace a genset manufacturer’s testing capacity, a modular test cell bridged the gap – and laid the groundwork for future growth.