Solar Panels Are Being Installed

Installation of the solar panels onto their racking started yesterday.  We expect them to be up at the end of the day today, with electrical work starting soon after.

769/660/D7E Status Update

Barring their being held by US Customs, we expect to begin shipping the 769, 660 and D7E the week of October 10th.  More updates will come as we receive more information.

Solar Panel Progress Update

Progress continues and it looks like the entire project will be finished just in time for the rainy season.  Workers are currently wrapping up the installation of the rails that hold the panels, which will begin installation on Monday.

Mr. Smith & the 999

We stumbled upon a screen grab from the 2005 movie "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" which shows Brad Pitt at his desk at work approximately 25 minutes into the film.  Proudly displayed on his desk is CCM's Manitowoc 999 in 1:48 precision scale brass.

First CAT Hydraulic Mining Excavator Working in Finland

We discovered an interesting story on the International Mining website and thought you might find it interesting.  The original link can be found at the bottom.

Posted on September 15th, 2011

First Cat branded hydraulic mining excavator working at Siilinjärvi phosphate in Finland

A newly Caterpillar-branded hydraulic mining excavator was recently delivered from the former Bucyrus factory in Dortmund to Hartikainnen, Finland’s biggest contractor, which is using the machine at the Siilinjärvi phosphate mine in the country where it has the mining contract. The excavator is a Caterpillar 6030 (formerly knnown as the RH120 under Terex O&K then Bucyrus) and has been delivered together with five 785D trucks. The excavator has been commissioned with the formal handover of the whole fleet scheduled for October. ”It is exciting to reach this milestone in our integration journey,” stated Caterpillar’s Neil Roth, who led the product branding team. “We formed a team earlier this year to work across multiple areas of the business to plan and implement the product brand changes. This is an important element of going to the mining industry as one team to help our customers be more successful.”

It is also significant for the Dortmund factory as it is the first mining excavator they have ever sold to Finland. The Siilinjärvi site consists of a mine and several plants. The mine is the only producer of phosphate ore in Western Europe, and it produces apatite, biotite and calcite, while the plants refining phosphate into phosphoric acid for fertiliser production. Production at the mine, which is part of fertiliser giant Yara International ASA, started in 1980. Hartikainnen already operates a large fleet of Caterpillar 777 trucks and Hitachi excavators (EX1200 and EX1900) at the mine.

Source:http://www.im-mining.com/2011/09/15/first...

Solar Panel Progress Update

Our panels arrived this morning and started to make their way to our roof this afternoon.  Over the next few weeks, mounts will be installed on the roof and the solar panels will be mounted to them.  More pictures to come as progress continues.

D7E, 769, 660 Shipping Update

The shipment of our D7E, 769 and 660 was delayed by Chinese customs for 2 weeks.  It is now on the water with delivery estimated at the beginning of October.

CCM is Going Green...

After a 3 month process of city, state and federal applications, work has begun on a solar power system at our office.  A number of panels will be installed on our roof, totaling over 26kW of power production.  We will post some photos as progress is made, along with images of the completed project.

Lifts used to install roof reinforcements to support the added weight of the system.

The Captain: More Boom Photos

The prototype boom of our upcoming Marion 6360 arrived at our office yesterday.  Although we've posted some photos already, they didn't do justice to the level of detail on the boom.  In order to give a better idea of the workmanship involved, we took the prototype boom into the photo room and snapped a few pictures.