Caterpillar Case Study

The history of the track-type tractor dates to 1904 when two separate but similar ideas were tested, with the first patent issued in 1907 for a continuous track tractor known colloquially as a ‘Caterpillar’. The Caterpillar Tractor Company was formed in 1925 and its manufacturing plant in East Peoria, Illinois was one of the major industrial sites in the USA by the 1930s. In 1951 the company opened its first overseas manufacturing facility, in the United Kingdom.