LeTourneau Technologies, Inc. was an American manufacturer of heavy construction equipment founded by R. G. LeTourneau. In 2011, the company was acquired by Joy Global.
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R. G. LeTourneau founded R.G. LeTourneau, Inc. in California in 1929, as a contractor of earthmoving equipment, which manufactured products in Longview, Texas. [1] [ better source needed ]
During World War II, the company provided nearly 75% of the Allies' earthmoving equipment. [2] In 1954, it built the first jack-up drilling rig.[ citation needed ] In 1955, it made the first log-stacker machine.[ citation needed ] In 1965, the company made the first straddle carrier.[ citation needed ][ clarification needed ]
LeTourneau had spent the early 1950s perfecting a diesel-electric drivetrain for multi-wheeled heavy-machinery.[ citation needed ] The system—somewhat similar in concept to the sort used on many locomotives –used a diesel combustion engine to spin an electric generator, which would send its power to hub motors mounted to each wheel of the vehicle. [2] This allowed for multi-wheel-drive without differentials, driveshafts, or the drivetrain losses associated with them.[ citation needed ]
For the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW line) project, Western Electric and Alaska Freightlines, with the help of TRADCOM (U.S. Army Transportation Research and Development Command), contracted to have a pair of off-road over-land trains, the TC-264 Sno-Buggy, designed specifically for Arctic conditions, to be built by LeTourneau Technologies. The TC-264 Sno-Buggy was the longest off-road vehicle ever built at the time, with its six cars (including the locomotive) measuring a total of 274 feet. Each car was driven by four 7.3 foot-tall wheels and tires. The 24-wheel-drive was powered by two 400 horsepower Cummins diesel engines connected to a hub motor. It had a payload capacity of 150 tons, and could traverse nearly any terrain. It had a very successful first season hauling freight to the DEW Line. [3]
LeTourneau sold most of his company to Westinghouse Air Brake Company in 1953, for US$ 31M. [2] In 1970, just after the death of the founder, the company[ clarification needed ] was sold to Marathon Manufacturing Company and was renamed Marathon LeTourneau Company.[ citation needed ]
In 1994, Rowan (now Valaris Limited), which had used the company to manufacture its drilling rigs, acquired the company from General Cable for $50 million. [4] [5]
In 2011, Rowan (now Valaris Limited) sold LeTourneau Technologies to Joy Global. [6] Joy Global subsequently sold LeTourneau's Drilling, Marine, and Power divisions to Cameron International. [7]
In 2016, Keppel Corporation acquired LeTourneau Offshore Products (jackups, cranes, and elevating units) from Cameron, while Cameron retained the LeTourneau Drilling Products division. [8]
The Davenport Locomotive Works, of Davenport, Iowa, USA was formed as the W W Whitehead Company in 1901. In 1902 the company commenced building light locomotives. The Company was renamed the Davenport Locomotive Works in 1904.
A loader is a heavy equipment machine used in construction to move or load materials such as soil, rock, sand, demolition debris, etc. into or onto another type of machinery.
Heavy equipment, heavy machinery, earthmovers, construction vehicles, or construction equipment, refers to heavy-duty vehicles specially designed to execute construction tasks, most frequently involving earthwork operations or other large construction tasks. Heavy equipment usually comprises five equipment systems: the implement, traction, structure, power train, and control/information.
A grader, also commonly referred to as a road grader, motor grader, or simply blade, is a form of heavy equipment with a long blade used to create a flat surface during grading. Although the earliest models were towed behind horses, and later tractors, most modern graders are self-propelled and thus technically "motor graders".
Komatsu Ltd. or Komatsu (コマツ) is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures construction, mining, forestry and military equipment, as well as diesel engines and industrial equipment like press machines, lasers and thermoelectric generators. Its headquarters are in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The corporation was named after the city of Komatsu, Ishikawa Prefecture, where the company was founded in 1921. Worldwide, the Komatsu Group consists of Komatsu Ltd. and 258 other companies.
In the 1950s, LeTourneau Inc. developed several overland trains, essentially oversized semi-trailer trucks that could travel over almost any terrain. Their intention was to be able to handle logistics needs without being dependent on local road or rail systems, allowing them to operate in back-country areas. The US Army had three experimental units built, the largest reaching almost 600 feet (183 m) long, which holds the record for the longest off-road vehicle. Road trains are in use in certain roles today, but the US Army examples and a few derivatives appear to be the only off-road examples built.
Robert Gilmour "R.G." LeTourneau, born in Richford, Vermont, was a prolific inventor of technologies related to earthmoving machinery, and founder of LeTourneau Technologies and LeTourneau University. His factories supplied machinery which represented nearly 75 percent of the earthmoving equipment used by the Allied forces during World War II, and more than half of the 1,500-mile (2,414 km) Alaska Highway in Canada, "Alcan", was built using LeTourneau equipment. Over the course of his life he secured 299 patents, relating to earthmoving equipment, manufacturing processes, and machine tools.
In civil engineering, a wheel tractor-scraper is a type of heavy equipment used for earthmoving. It has a pan/hopper for loading and carrying material. The pan has a tapered horizontal front cutting edge that cuts into the soil like a carpenter's plane or cheese slicer and fills the hopper which has a movable ejection system. The horsepower of the machine, depth of the cut, type of material, and slope of the cut area affect how quickly the pan is filled.
The Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation was an American company founded on September 28, 1869 by George Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Earlier in the year he had invented the railway air brake in New York state.
A drillship is a merchant vessel designed for use in exploratory offshore drilling of new oil and gas wells or for scientific drilling purposes. In recent years the vessels have been used in deepwater and ultra-deepwater applications, equipped with the latest and most advanced dynamic positioning systems.
The P&H L-2350 Wheel Loader is a loader used for surface mining. It is manufactured by Komatsu Limited. It holds the Guinness World Record for Biggest Earth Mover. Designed to center-load haul trucks with capacities of up to 360 tonnes, the L-2350 provides an operating payload of 73 tonnes, a 7.03 metres (23.1 ft) lift height, and an 3.5 metres (11.5 ft) reach.
The Euclid Company of Ohio was a manufacturer which specialized in heavy equipment for earthmoving, particularly dump trucks, loaders and wheel tractor-scrapers. It operated in the US from the 1920s to the 1950s, when it was purchased by General Motors. The firm was later bought by Hitachi Construction Machinery.
A jackup rig or a self-elevating unit is a type of mobile platform that consists of a buoyant hull fitted with a number of movable legs, capable of raising its hull over the surface of the sea. The buoyant hull enables transportation of the unit and all attached machinery to a desired location. Once on location the hull is raised to the required elevation above the sea surface supported by the sea bed. The legs of such units may be designed to penetrate the sea bed, may be fitted with enlarged sections or footings, or may be attached to a bottom mat. Generally jackup rigs are not self-propelled and rely on tugs or heavy lift ships for transportation.
Clark Equipment Company was an American designer, manufacturer, and seller of industrial and construction machinery and equipment.
P&H Mining Equipment sells drilling and material handling machinery under the "P&H" trademark. The firm is an operating subsidiary of Joy Global Inc. In 2017 Joy Global Inc. was acquired by Komatsu Limited of Tokyo, Japan, and is now known as Komatsu Mining Corporation and operates as a subsidiary of Komatsu.
The Sno-Freighter is a one-of-a-kind land vehicle designed by LeTourneau Technologies for Alaska Freight Lines in the 1950s. During that decade, Alaska Freight Lines won the contract to transport construction material to build the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW) in far northern Alaska and Canada. At the time, no roads crossed the Arctic Circle in North America, there were almost no runways for air transportation, and the polar ice cap prevented seaborne transport.
Joy Global Inc. was a company that manufactured and serviced heavy equipment used in the extraction and haulage of coal and minerals in both underground and surface mining. The company had manufacturing facilities in Alabama, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin, Australia, Canada, China, France, South Africa, Poland and the United Kingdom. In 2017, Joy Global was acquired by Komatsu Limited and was renamed Komatsu Mining Corp.
Cameron International Corporation (formerly Cooper Cameron Corporation (CCC) and Cooper Oil Tool, Cameron Iron Works) though now operating under Schlumberger, is a global provider of pressure control, production, processing, and flow control systems as well as project management and aftermarket services for the oil and gas and process industries. Cameron was acquired by Schlumberger (SLB) in 2016, and now operates as 'Cameron, an SLB Company.' At the start of the SLB acquisition in 2015, Cameron employed approximately 23,000 people and delivered $9.8 billion in revenue.
Unit Rig was a manufacturer of haul trucks, sold under the brand name Lectra Haul.
Haulpak was a very successful line of off-highway mining trucks. The name was used from 1953 until around 1999; the line continues under the Komatsu name. The name was adopted as Wabco Haulpak when R. G. LeTourneau's business was bought by Wabco, and the Haulpak name continued through Wabco's purchase by American Standard, the operation's purchase by Dresser Industries, the merger into Komatsu-Dresser, and for a time after Komatsu took complete ownership from Dresser.