The bulldozer is a very powerful crawler that is equipped with a blade. The term bulldozer is often used to mean any type of heavy machinery, although the term actually refers to a tractor that is fitted with a dozer blade. Often times, bulldozers are large and extremely powerful tracked vehicles. The tracks give them amazing ground mobility and hold through very rough terrain. Wide tracks on the other hand, help to distribute the weight of the dozer over large areas, therefore preventing it from sinking into sandy or muddy ground.

Bulldozers have great ground hold and a torque divider that’s designed to convert the power of the engine into dragging ability, which allows it to use its own weight to push heavy objects and even remove things from the ground. Take the Caterpillar D9 for example, it can easily tow tanks that weight more than 70 tons. Due to these attributes, bulldozers are used to clear obstacles, shrubbery, and remains of structures and buildings.

Over time, bulldozers have been modified to evolve into new machines that are capable of things the original bulldozers weren’t. A good example is that loader tractors were created by removing the blade and substituting a large volume bucket and hydraulic arms which will raise and lower the bucket, therefore making it useful for scooping up the earth and loading it into trucks. Other modifications to the original bulldozer include making it smaller to where it can operate in small working areas where movement is very limited, such as mining caves and tunnels. Very small bulldozers are known as calfdozers.

Want more latest info about automobile world??
Subscribe to the feed to stay upated by RSS | by Email

• Be the first to comment...

oshiba Corp announced that it has agreed with Jindal South West Group (JSW, based in Mumbai, India) to establish a joint venture specializing in the production and the distribution of equipment for thermal power plants.

Toshiba will enter the Indian market in earnest, where demand for electricity is rapidly increasing.

The joint company will be established in June 2008, and the production is scheduled to begin in September 2009. The new company plans to design, manufacture and sell highly-efficient, large-scale (500,000-1,000,000kW) super-critical steam turbines and generators as well as provide various services for these products. Toshiba’s investment ratio is 75% under the agreement.

Toshiba and JSW are now deciding the location of the plant and seeking a site of roughly 400,000m2. The companies will make a total investment of US$250 billion (about ¥27.5 billion) in the construction of the plant and the manufacturing equipment.

The two parties will launch production lines in series, while Toshiba’s Keihin Operations in Yokohama complements the new plant’s manufacturing process in the beginning. The new plant reportedly aims at an independent production scale of 3,000,000kW per year.

According to the Eleventh and Twelfth Five-Year National Electricity Plans published by the Indian government, the Indian power generation equipment market is expected to see demand growth of 15-16GW per year for the next decade. Coal-fired thermal power stations will account for approximately 60% of the growth.

As the rapid increase in demand for the equipment is outpacing the supply, Toshiba will enter the Indian market by building a new plant there. Toshiba, already the global leader in the market for super-critical coal-fired thermal stations, plans to employ cutting-edge technologies at the new plant and strategically make use of the plant as a cost-efficient production base targeting the global market.

Furthermore, Toshiba aims to enhance its presence by collaborating with the JSW group, with which it can cooperate in material procurement and in the marketing of the equipment.

JSW is a leading industrial conglomerate, which has subsidiaries such as steel company JSW Steel Ltd and power producer JSW Energy Ltd. The group is now promoting the production and the distribution of steel products for power generation equipment. Toshiba and JSW share a common goal in their business enhancement, which led to the latest agreement on the joint venture company.

Want more latest info about automobile world??
Subscribe to the feed to stay upated by RSS | by Email

• Be the first to comment...

India’s Tata Steel and Brazilian mining giant Vale plan to invest around $379.41 or Rs.1,555 crores in Australia, in order to expand the Carborough Downs coalmine near Moranbah in Central Queensland, Australia.

The decision on expanding production at the Carborough Down coalmine in Australia gives Tata Steel an opportunity to explore larger areas for coal deposits and ensures raw materials security.

The construction is expected to commence in May 2008 and the commissioning of large-scale and new mining equipment is expected by mid 2009, a Tata Steel release stated.

Carborough Downs is an underground mine operated by Carborough Downs Coal Management. Vale and its joint venture partners, including Tata Steel, Nippon Steel Corporation, Posco, JFE Steel and JFE Shoji, own around 80% of the mine. Tata Steel, Nippon Steel and Posco own 5% each in the Carborough Down coal mine, while JFE Steel and JFE Shoji individually hold 2.5%.

The investment would lead to an annual production of 4.9 million tonnes Run of Mine coal, yielding 3.7 million tonnes of coking and PCI coal from the third quarter of 2009.

Want more latest info about automobile world??
Subscribe to the feed to stay upated by RSS | by Email

• Be the first to comment...

BLOOMINGTON — Teenagers Hally Gaddis and Gage Fossberger linked arms and slowly walked up to the F-4N Phantom II fighter jet parked just off Illinois 9.

With their free arms, each reached high and “looked” over the aircraft, carefully dragging fingertips along the wingspan as Prairie Aviation Museum tour guide Pete Troesch explained details.

“That’s so cool. I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Gaddis, of Bloomington. Fossberger, of Pontiac, agreed as he slowly guided his arm around the fuselage to the jet engines.

The 15-year-olds were among nearly 40 high school students from Jacksonville-based Illinois School for the Visually Impaired who toured the museum and its planes on Monday.

The trip gave students a chance to hold tiny model planes and authentic U.S. Air Force flight gear, and to gain firsthand experience near actual aircraft. It also allowed a lesson in maneuvering through an unfamiliar setting, said Cathy Bissoondial, museum board president.

“I think it’s been great,” said ISVI science teacher Barbara French, who proposed the trip after passing the museum earlier this spring. “I’m watching them, and they are so engaged, and interacting and learning.”

French said many of her students have ridden on a passenger jet, but most — because of no or limited eyesight – were unfamiliar with the size and shape of planes.

“I’ve never seen them so gung-ho for a field trip,” said Jim Strader, the school’s orientation and mobility specialist.

Before the visit, French translated informational sheets on each aircraft to forms written in Braille and large-print type.

During the tour, Troesch led Gaddis, Fossberger and students Aaron Engel of Lindenhurst and Bradley Matthews of Chicago around the plane, stopping at various points to describe details.

“Now put your hand up here,” Troesch directed them. “This light tells other aircraft that this is the right wing.”

And later: “Feel how the paint is raised there. That’s a white star with red and white stripes behind it – it shows this is a U.S. plane.”

Each also got a chance to reach into the cockpit and feel the thrusters and dashboard controls.

Volunteer Frank Marten showed off a 20-foot-long B-52 engine, helping each student pass a hand over the raised screws and wires wound tightly to keep screws in place.

“The engine sucks air through the front, squeezes it back, then blows it out through the back,” Marten explained.

Four other students learned about the museum’s AH-I J Sea Cobra helicopter. Museum volunteers Ryan Weishalla and Larry Cox described both the physical details and the military purposes of the Cobra as a CD player humming the sounds of a helicopter’s blades played in the background.

Want more latest info about automobile world??
Subscribe to the feed to stay upated by RSS | by Email

• Be the first to comment...

YORKVILLE — Vintage Limousine Service received recognition recently for its safety record.

Vintage Limousine received a 2007 Gold Safety Award from Long Island-based Lancer Insurance Co. The award is given to companies that “clearly demonstrate the highest commitment of safety to their customers and employees,” according to a news release.

“We’re extremely pleased to recognize these exemplary companies,” Lancer Vice President Bob Crescenzo said in the release. “We believe that it is very important that recipient companies’ management, drivers, mechanics and support staff be publicly acknowledged for performing their critical jobs at a level that not only meets but often exceeds industry standards.”

Vintage Limousine’s Web site also lists two other awards for “Safety Excellence” received from Lancer in 2004 and 2005.

Want more latest info about automobile world??
Subscribe to the feed to stay upated by RSS | by Email

• Be the first to comment...

As race season gets underway it was out with the old and in with the new over at Clabber Girl. The museum said goodbye to its 1966 racecar to welcome this year’s model a 1962 driven by Dale Gurney.

Each year at the beginning of May, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway loans a car for display. The antique cars stay for one year and are changed out with each new race season.

“The Hulman-George family owns Clabber Girl as well as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway so every year we have a new car on exhibit to just promote the Indy 500 and Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” said Meegan Morgan, curator of the Clabber Girl Museum.

If you’d like to see it for yourself, head over to the museum. It’s open Monday through Friday from 10am to 6pm. The museum is open Saturdays from 9am to 3pm and admission is free.

Want more latest info about automobile world??
Subscribe to the feed to stay upated by RSS | by Email

• Be the first to comment...

Harley-Davidson unveiled its latest bobber-style Softail this past weekend at the infamous Viper Room nightclub on the Sunset Strip. The tie-in to the Hollywood scene wasn’t exactly clear, but a safe guess would be that H-D wants to make it known that the Cross Bones is one cool bike. And what better way to impress that image than to go where all the cool kids go. The other theme they wanted to hit upon was that of a dark scene, a theme that correlates well with what Harley calls “dark customs.” If you haven’t seen or been to the Viper Room, its exterior is entirely black with virtually nothing to indicate that it’s a nightclub.

It was a scene full of young hipster types (including the quintessential loud, obnoxious guy), foxy ladies, plenty of media and free flowing booze and munchies. Yep, the Cross Bones’ premiere was classic Hollywood, and in typical premiere fashion some big names were on hand. Big as in persons whose name is one half of the name on the bike. Big names like Willie G. Davidson and son Bill Davidson. When the el jefes come out, you know it’s important to them.

When Willie G. and Bill finally lifted the silky cloth to reveal the bike beneath, what we saw was a bike that reaches deep into Harley’s past for inspiration. The Cross Bones is a Softail that pays homage to the post-war past with a springer front end, bobbed fenders highlighting fat 16- and 17-inch tires riding on spoked wheels, an adjustable two-position springer solo saddle, ape-hanger bars, simple but elegant paint and dark or blacked-out finishes on everything from the engine to the turn signals. Heck, there’s so much darkened componentry it’s hard to keep track of it all, but another neat styling cue are the console-mounted indicator and idiot lights that remain hidden from plain sight until they’re activated. Cool!

Like its dark cousins the Nightster, Night Train, Night Rod Special and more recently the Street Bob, the Cross Bones leaves chrome at a minimum with only a few engine covers and the exhaust pipes as the shiniest bits on the bike. A few other slick touches include a black face on the tank-mounted console speedometer, nostalgic rounded air cleaner cover and foot boards, and hand-laced leather fuel tank trim. And for you Von Dutch fans, some “wicked” pin stripping is tastefully applied to the fuel tank and fenders.

Innovative styling aside, the Cross Bones is a Softail at its core. As such it utilizes the same air-cooled, fuel-injected rigid-mount balanced Twin Cam 96B mill and 6-speed tranny that the other seven Softails employ. We hope the single 292mm rotor and solo dual-piston caliper are up to the job of slowing the Bones’ claimed 737 lbs. running order weight long enough to bend its 64.5-inch wheelbase through a turn. With 32 degrees of rake and 6.3 inches of trail we won’t expect this newest Softail to flick into those turns, but if our time on the Rocker C with it’s raked-out 69.2-inch wheelbase, 38-degree rake and 6.2 inches of trail is any indication of how well a 240mm rear tire cruiser can handle, the Cross Bones should perform reasonably considering its narrower 200mm rear rubber.

It may look both cool and uncomfortable at the same time, but that springy leather solo seat isn’t the only means of cush for the tush. Like all Harley softies a pair of horizontally-mounted shocks are tucked far out of sight in order to keep with the rigid look of yore while still providing a forgiving cruise.

Speaking of Softails, a quick head count shows that with the addition of the Cross Bones this line now consists of eight machines, the most of any in Harley’s line-up.

An Even Tougher Image for Harley?
In addition to the unveiling of a new bike, Bill Davidson announced that Harley-Davidson has signed up with the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) and World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) organizations as a presenting sponsor and exclusive motorcycle sponsor. The mighty bar and shield of the Motor Company appeared center ring on the mat at a recent December 29, 2007 fight event called UFC 79: NEMESIS at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Sponsorship of the UFC and WEC events will see the Bar & Shield logo placement in the center spot on the Octagon canvas, as a press conference and weigh-in backdrop and in other event locations.

Harley-Davidson motorcycles and advertisements will appear at other UFC and WEC events and locations. H-D is also encouraging its independent dealers to hold UFC “fight night” events and customer parties in conjunction with a limited number of appropriate UFC events. A tough brand of bike for a tough crowd, we guess.

Summing up the Davidson family feelings on the Cross Bones, Bill Davidson V.P. of Core Customer Marketing says that it’s inspired as much by the company’s early Knuckle- and Pan-head bikes as it is by a desire to employ today’s bike technology. “Cross Bones is a bike that makes me want to strap a blanket across the handle bar, hit the campgrounds on my next road trip and get totally in touch with what’s right about this land,” said Davidson.

Want more latest info about automobile world??
Subscribe to the feed to stay upated by RSS | by Email

• Be the first to comment...