Cat drives into new year with 7495 ERS

Drawn from Caterpillar’s 100-plus years’ experience in rope shovel design, the company has included enhancements including an increased frame durability and improved serviceability in the new ERS.

The Cat 7495 reduces cost per tonne of material moved by as much as 15 per cent.

Caterpillar has taken on board feedback from its customers and focussed on boosting machine availability and productivity.

The company has implemented a fully adaptive control system for HydraCrowd and more innovative technology and data security.

This delivers up to 5 per cent cost of ownership savings with their rebuildable elements and improved accessibility, reducing the time required for replacements while increasing reliability without significantly changing the HydraCrowd maintenance schedule.

HydraCrowd uses a tybe-enclosed hydraulic system to reduce stress on the front end of the shovel components, replacing conventional maintenance heavy cable arrangements.

“Many of these improvements are compatible with shovels in the field, so customers can realise these gains through upgrades to their existing fleets as well as new machine purchases,” Caterpillar’s ERS product value stream manager Dan Wyatt explained.

Caterpillar has also nearly doubled the life of the propel gear with its new propel gear case for the 7495, preparing it for extreme operating conditions.

This lowers total cost ownership as much as $8 per hour when the drive system is replaced at the scheduled time.

Additionally, the 7495 boasts an ecology drain to simplify oil draining and enable kidney-loop flushing, reducing abrasion-causing contaminants and oil change frequency for less time lost due to maintenance.

The reconfigured crawler carriage allows shaft and tumbler replacement from the outboard side without removing the propel transmission, slashing maintenance time by days.

Structurally, Caterpillar has enhanced the design of the 7495 ERS to lessen the stress from loads passing through the swing rack, eliminating vertical segment cracks.