WesTrac Cat Family Friendly Display Hailed a Big Success

As part of the recent Resources Technology Showcase (RTS) exhibition, held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, in Perth WA, regional Caterpillar dealer WesTrac put on an impressive display of Cat equipment, just a stone’s throw away in the heart of Elizabeth Quay.

I first learned about this event on Instagram, but as I live in the UK, I put a shout out to a dear old school friend of mine Michele McNulty who lives in Perth, to see if she could pop down to take some photos for the blog, she in turn put me in touch with a friend of hers, Paul Meek, who is a keen photography enthusiast, who very kindly agreed to go down and grab a few shots for us.

The RTS is a family friendly exhibition which offers the general public a chance to see some of the amazing technology and innovation driving the mining, resources, defence and space industries in Western Australia, and best of all it was free to enter via an online registration system.

Naturally, heavy mining and earthmoving is a massive industry in Western Australia and offers a lot of employment to people in the region, and to showcase that, WesTrac Cat who were a partner for this years RTS exhibition, brought along over $4.5 million worth of Cat machines for the public display that ran from June 19^th-27^th inclusive.

The machines included, 988 XE wheeled loader, the latest Next Gen Cat excavator models 325, 326, and 330, a selection of Cat 301.5 Next Gen Mini Excavators, and the undoubted star of the show the second largest dozer in the Caterpillar range the Cat D10T2, which tips the scales at 70171kgs (154700lbs) and is powered by a Cat C27 diesel engine, offering a power output rating of 447kw, (600hp) at 1,800 rpm.

I understand that people were queuing up to have their photo taken with the big dozer, and its not hard to see why, they are some pretty impressive beasts!

In addition to getting up close and personal with the latest big yellow iron from Cat, visitors were also able to learn about the latest technological advancements in the industry, such as electric-drive machinery and autonomous operations which are becoming increasingly popular in the big mines in WA.

Talking of electric drive machinery, the impressive 988K XE features electric drive technology, which according to Cat can offer an overall efficiency improvement of up to 25%. This machine is powered by Cat’s C18 engine, which offers a power output rating of 403kw (541hp), it has a maximum bucket capacity of 13m³ and an operating weight of 52781kgs (116362lbs).

The Next Gen range of hydraulic excavators are brimming with new state-of-the-art technology and WesTrac were running live demonstrations of the 325 compact radius model to showcase some of the amazing features that are packed into these new machines, such as Cat Grade with 2D, Grade Assist, Lift Assist, and Payload which all come as factory fitted standard specification.

Of course, all kids love diggers, and there was even the opportunity for youngsters and adults alike to take to the controls of a Cat 310.5 Next Gen mini excavator to dig some dirt, in a controlled and managed situation, as I understand it the slew/swing feature was isolated for safety reasons, but for many this would probably have been the first time they ever had the chance to get behind the controls of a real digger, if it inspires just one kid to take up machine operating later in life, it can only be a good thing, as we all know, the industry needs young blood on a global scale!

The event ran for 9 days, from 10am till 5pm, and in the evenings the exhibits were lit up by spotlights for an impressive night time display. We thank WesTrac for the night time aerial shot below.

It looked like an interesting and fun filled event, and no doubt a few WesTrac Cat goodies were despatched out to the keen visitors over the course of the display.

If you ever wondered how much time and effort goes into setting up a display like this, take a look at this time lapse video from WesTrac, featuring the build up for the 2019 edition of the RTS event. 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank WesTrac for providing me with some details on the exhibition and special thanks again to Paul Meek for supplying a selection of photos for the Digger Man Blog.