Businessweek

Caterpillar Inc. will reportedly cut another 300 jobs at its plant in Decatur, Ill., just a month after it said it would eliminate 460 jobs there. The decision by the Peoria, Ill.-based equipment manufacturer is a result of continued weakness in the mining industry. The 760 lost jobs represent about 20% of the Decatur facility's work force. The company and United Steelworkers Local 1343 are negotiating a new labor contract for the 803 unionized workers in South Milwaukee. The union workers rejected a proposed contract April 30.

Caterpillar Inc. announced that it is closing a tunnel-boring machine factory in Toronto by mid-2014, throwing 330 workers out of a job. Caterpillar acquired the facility in 2008 when it bought Lovat Inc. and got into the tunnelling business, but now says the plant is no longer a 'strategic growth opportunity' and will be shut down. Employees at the plant recently worked on four boring machines being used to chew through ground for the construction of the Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown light rapid transit line in Toronto. The company said the 330 workers are being offered a severance package as well as assistance to help them find new jobs.

Caterpillar Inc. has announced plans to lay off an additional 300 employees at its Decatur plant within the next 60 days. The company announced last month to permanently lay off 460 employees at the plant. The company announced the layoffs were part of an effort to deal with a slump in the mining business.

Caterpillar Inc.'s oil and gas division, Caterpillar Global Petroleum announced the launch of Cat(R) Well Stimulation Pumps for the well service market. Starting in May 2013, Caterpillar will begin accepting orders for the Cat WS223, a 2250 bhp (1678 bkW) triplex well stimulation pump, as well as the Cat WS255, a 2500 bhp (1864 bkW) quintuplex well stimulation pump. In addition to offering the complete pump for well service customers, Caterpillar will offer a variety of 8" and 10" stroke fluid ends individually. The Cat Well Stimulation Pumps feature fluid ends and power ends designed to an industry standard footprint. This will allow customers to easily fit the Cat pump into their existing trailer designs. In addition to the standard fluid end Cat will offer an Extreme Duty (XD) fluid end with superior durability for the harshest operating conditions. The fluid ends on both models have a valve-over-valve design to simplify valve, seat and plunger installation, and each fluid end block is manufactured with a robust material conditioning process. A full assortment of discharge flanges, suction manifolds, and bore sizes will also be offered. The new Cat well stimulation pumps will be distributed, sold and supported through the worldwide Cat dealer network with trained technicians to ensure service support is never out of reach.

Caterpillar Inc. announced that it has developed a Dynamic Gas Blending (DGB) retrofit kit for use on the Cat(R) 3512C (HD) engine used in well stimulation applications. Available to order in June 2013, this system will allow for maximum substitution of diesel fuel with natural gas during high pressure pumping operations, and is available in both Air To Air After Cooled (ATAAC) and Separate Circuit After Cooled (SCAC) configurations for 2250 hp and 2500 hp @1900rpm ratings. Heavily leveraging decades of success with Cat natural gas engines and the recent introduction of the Cat DGB system for land drilling and production, the Cat well stimulation DGB system makes no comprise with performance, safety, and reliability while burning a mixture of diesel and natural gas fuels. Along with the benefit of realizing significant fuel cost savings by substituting diesel fuel with natural gas, there are several other key features of the Caterpillar DGB system that make it a winning solution for well stimulation. Operators can run the system with confidence on CNG, LNG, and field gas with a lower heating value between 850 and 1,250 Btu, knowing that the engine is maintaining United States EPA Tier 2 level emissions with the combined muffler and Cat Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC) included in the DGB kit. The system is capable of achieving maximum substitution at various speeds and loads over the full operating range, and will automatically adjust to changes in gas quality without the need to perform any recalibration or adjustments to the system during or between jobs. The DGB system is fully integrated with the engine control system, optimizing engine performance and ensuring that the engine always operates within safe parameters while blending diesel and natural gas. This results in no compromise with performance, maintenance intervals, engine reliability, and most importantly, safety. Installation of the Cat DGB kit on existing engines is streamlined through efficient design. The combined muffler and DOC eliminates the need for the customer to integrate a DOC with their existing mufflers, and a single advanced Engine Control Unit simplifies the electrical system.