Cat. purchases over $20,000,000.00 worth of forgings from us yearly at their Peoria, Joliet and Morton facilities! We also sell a ton of forgings to Cat machine shops all over the country, including Mexico.
We forge ground engaging tools (Teeth), end bits for bulldozers, gears, ripper shanks, yokes, caps, trunnions, bearings, spindles, eyes, collars, hooks, hubs, tamping feet, spiders, forks, flanges and so on.
Remember, we are only forging the rough shape. That rough shape needs to be further machined by Cat or a sub contractor.
The only forgings Cat produces in house is track links.
Pouring an engine block is a casting operation. Think of forging as the old blacksmith hammering horse shoes. Heat the steel to 2200 deg. F. and pound it into shape. In the casting ind., the steel is melted and poured.
Forgings are the strongest raw material made. Thus aircraft landing gears are forged.
Cat. does fab. a lot of there own product. But fabricating is not casting or forging.
If I had to guess, Cat buys over $500,000,000.00 worth of forgings per year. And that is only steel forgings! As opposed to aluminum, etc.....
