does any one know what komatsu means in whatever language it comes from, i think japan but im not sure, a scraper hand told me today that komatsu means "cat killer"
Komatsu (小松, Komatsu?) is a Japanese indigenous proper noun which means a small (小, ko?) pine (松, matsu?) tree. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komatsu Ross
"cat killer" LOL
i knew better than to trust a scraperhand, especially one thats in a band.
I have heard the same thing a few years ago. Maybe it is just a saying.
Koma -tsu could be mistaken for Coma-tose. But then again Koma from Greek Komat is self explanatory below. Main Entry: co·ma·tose Pronunciation: \ˈkō-mə-ˌtōs, ˈkä-\ Function: adjective Etymology: French comateux, from Greek kōmat-, kōma Date: 1755 1 : of, resembling, or affected with coma 2 : characterized by lethargic inertness : torpid
Komatsu ,is a place in Japan I thought, the largest bulldozer in the World is on top of the Komatsu building I think its made of ply-wood????? tctractors
Komatsu?????????????????????????? Hi, Folks. TCTractors is closest to the truth of the matter here, from what I can gather. From the 'History Of Komatsu', by Arthur McNae of Ormeau, Queensland, DownUnder, Komatsu is the name of the town in Japan where the Komatsu company originated on May 13, 1921. The company actually began in 1902 as Tacheuchi Mining, running the Yusenji copper mine, about 8 kilometres from Komatsu City. In 1905, the mine began building a power plant for the mine. This power plant started producing in 1907 and the same year a railway was built to transport workers and copper between the city and the mine. In 1920, the mine ran into financial difficulties and ceased operations. At this time, the head of the mining company, Meitaro Tacheuchi, got together a group of investors to form Komatsu Manufacturing Company Ltd. Earlier, in 1911, an iron casting works had been built near Komatsu City and named, surprisingly, Komatsu Ironworks. This ironworks was the foundation for Komatsu Manufacturing's iron and steel casting. This same group was responsible for the manufacture of the first domestically produced Japanese vehicle, the DAT, which eventually became Datsun. Komatsu began crawler tractor production in 1932 with a copy of the Caterpillar 2-Ton crawler, designated G25. In 1935, they released a copy of the Best 30, designated the G40. In May 1937, the G40 was put up against a range of othe tractor from other producers around the world in trials in Manchuria. The G40 out-performed all competitors but its gasoline engine was 'just a tad' less economical than the Cat RD4 which was its main competition. From these trials, the 'word' came down from the Japanese government that all agricultural tractors for Manchuria were to be diesel-fuelled. Komatsu began working on producing its own high-speed diesel engines. Their first diesel powered crawler was the G35, apparently released the same year. Some years ago, what is believed to be the only surviving G35 was found on a farm near Griffith, New South Wales, DownUnder, IN WORKING CONDITION. It was shipped back to Japan where it now resides in a display of tractors at a Komatsu factory. They progressed from there, through the 2nd world war, to eventually begin exporting their products all over the world. Hope this helps. P.S.: TC, I'm told that the 'largest dozer' that you mentioned is actually a 'blow-up doll' dozer. This is a hangover from the days when Komatsu were trying to promote their dozer range as being serious competition to Caterpillar and Allis Chalmers.
:falldownlaugh
NICE :scool
I found this... Location & Geography: Komatsu is on the Honshu, the central island of Japan, some 321,868 km north west of Tokyo. Komatsu is located between the Sea of Japan and the Hakusan Mountains (White Mountains). Komatsu stands at the foot of a plain which is characterised by pine forests and rice and vegetable fields. The river Kakehashi runs through the plains to the coast. Economics: Like much of Japan there is a great deal of high-tech industry in Komatsu including the Awazu Plant of the Komatsu Company which is a major employer in the area. Komatsu is home to the regional airport for Ishikawa prefecture. Mayor: The Mayor of Komatsu is Mr Toru Nishimura. Population: 110,000 Symbol: The symbol of Komatsu is a pine-tree. The name 'Komatsu' means 'little pine'. The area was named about 1000 years ago when the then Emperor Kazan to Komatsu where he built a villa and planted many pine trees. Local Cuisine: Fish and rice are the main basic foods in Japan and Komatsu, due to its coastal location, offers an abundance of fish dishes. Noodles, known as udon, are also a favourite as is the local sake (rice wine) made from the waters of Mount Hakusan. Culture: Komatsu is steeped in the traditional culture of Japan. Festivals such as Don Don (drum festival) and 230-year-old Kabuki Children’s Festival are highlights of the Komatsu year. The area is also renowned for its excellent Kutani pottery and local craft products.
Ever seen the biggest of the big Komatsu super dozers, I think that's a "Cat Killer".
That's only because Cat doesn't make a dozer that large. (I'm kidding, of course... I'm well aware that Cat doesn't lead in every machine category.)
On the subject of 'killing cats'. Hi, Bobcat Ron. Maybe the 'Kummagutsa' D575 will out-produce the Cat D11 - while it is working. How-wevver, they seem to have a rather high 'mortality' rate themslves. From what I can gather, there is a far higher percentage of all D575's ever made currently side-lined than there is of the total D11's made to date. Another benchmark would be the availability percentages of the two machines. I doubt that the D575 can approach anything like the availability of the D11's. Maybe I'm a little slow but I haven't quite figured out yet why machines can't produce if they ain't running. Is it 'cos they don't move? The 'Kummagutsa' D375's and D475's have a reasonable reputation DownUnder for production, availability and repair-ability. Parts and service back-up ARE a bit of a problem however and that is causing people to be a little wary of getting involved with them DownUnder. Hi, Guns and Rotors. Nice find on that further information about Komatsu but I suspect that you would need to take a rather roundabout route for the trip from Tokyo to run into 321,800 odd kilometres. I think that's fairly close to 8 times around the world. Do you think there may have been a misprint or a 'typo' there? Thanks for the rest of the info. though.
In many countries 321,868 km equates to 321.868. Many of the European countries use the comma to distinguish between metric and imperial.
Why does almost everyone here call them "Kummagutsa's"?!?!?!?!?
Komatsu.... Us ta mok.... A favorite of a friend of mine who never called them Komatsu. He didn't then and still does not have any use for the machines, tho I think they make excellent boat anchors.
I like their little mini 27 excavator over the Hitachi, another boat anchor as well.
Oh come on now :~) I've Heard it all on these Forums "KomCrapsu" "Kumgashu" ETC Most threads with Komatsu end with how bad there machinery is. :beatsme We all know Komatsu make the best Medium excavator on the market. They also make a pretty good mining shovel as well only second to O&K. Cannot go wrong with the WA range of wheel loaders. Ross
Heads-up. Hi, Hvy 1ton. Thanks for the heads-up on that point. I wasn't aware of it. Thanks again.
'Kummagutsas'??????????????? Hi, Bobcat Ron. Quote: "Why does almost everyone here call them "Kummagutsa's"?!?!?!?!?" Unquote. I may not have ben paying attention all the time but so far I can only remember ever seeing me referring to them as 'Kummagutsas' directly. Others have used the term when referring to something that I have posted. Please don't infer that the other members here can't afford their own 'script-writers'. LOL. Would you believe that I have quite liked operating most of the 'Kummagutsa' machines that I have been on so far. The one exception that I can remember was an EARLY Kummagutsa articulated 4wd loader which was built in the same mould as the Hough loaders on which it was patterned. The operator sat on the front and the rear articlated away from the front. I didn't like that one little bit - didn't like it in the Case loaders either. Hi, Ross. It has shown up in the last few years, at least here in DownUnder, that Komatsu machines commonly have only about 2/3 the service life to first re-build or between subsequent rebuilds of a comparable Cat machine. Having said that, I will also admit that there is a bit(?) of prejudice out there in the workplace regarding 'Kummagutsa' machines - or anything else non-Cat - and that sometimes these non-Cat machines get a bit of hard time in the workplace because of it. A lot of times, a 'Kummagutsa' machine will out-produce its Cat competitor BUT, if you take the time to look at the specs for the 2 machines, the 'Kummagutsa' is VERY often slightly heavier and slightly more powerful with a slightly bigger bucket, blade, whatever. Whether the differences between performances and specs are pro rata, I don't know.
Cat is without question a much better dozer than komatsu!! Even JD dozers are superior to komatsu
dieselsambo, welcome to Heavy Equipment Forums!!:drinkup Would you care to explain why you feel the way you do about Komatsu's? We don't really like to see posts like yours without some support for your claims.
I would like to say a good word for Komatsu, as they built in my my mind (its small) the best tractor ever in the D85's with the Cummins power unit, they just seemed to work and work, the transmission is nearly silent compaired to anything in a CAT, also the CCU (oil pressure controled) would work for months without nothing more than a grease up and is without doubt the best winch ever built for scraper work, the transmission can be rebuilt with just a couple of spanners and a pair of snap ring pliers, I love them. tctractors
In Regards to the question about komatsu being Cat killer. we all know komatsu cloned cat so bad the same keys would fit each dozer but I have a little story about my father working for the union back in the late 80s in new jersey. he was running basically a prototype komatsu dozer and komatsu actually had thier own engineers standing there all day watching. and after every hour or two they would stop him and have the translator ask him normal feed back questions. well on his break he decided to ask the engineers what the symbol used back then for the logo stood for (circle rectangle circle). the translater asked and then promptly told him the first circle was the atomic bombs dropped on japan, the rectangle was a coffin, and the second circle was them dropping a bomb back on us. anyway i dont know if that is tru or of the engineers were blwoing smoke up his skirt, but it was kind of creepy he said. especialy when thy said it like it was no big deal or the way they acted like he shouldnt be offended lol. funny thing is my father owns an excavation company and only runs komatsu dozers.
Japan Hello Instructor War, Needea throw some water on the fire. I was in Hiroshima, Japan 1965 , 25 years after they dropped the Atomic Bomb, at Ground Zero ! They, the Japanese have a museum there. A Peace Bell. The Devastation was horrific. So was the atrocities committed upon the American POW's in WW2. General Douglas McArthur rebuilt fallen,destroyed Japan, into what it is today. A competitor in a democractic society. Quite a turnaround. Perhaps not what I and many Americans would like to see. Undermining us, our society ! Now Nixon created the same scenario for Capitalism in China . Feed them or have them eventually kill us ! This is what Globalism is about ! National Sovereignty is being relinquished little by little! No longer being made in one country ,but many, at the cheapest price. much more, too much for this space.
That is a sweeping statment, you can't seriously be saying that every size and model of Cat dozer is better than it's Komatsu equivalent? I am currently running a JD 700 and it would run rings around any D5M or N that I have ever run. :beatsme
D6k We have been told directly from CAT's engineers that the 6K is comparable to the 700.We currently own [4] 700's and [6] 6K's.Having run both in numerous applications from GPS Site Work to Finish Stone on Highway projects,we have found the 6K to hold an advantage over the 700.Although the 700 has better visibilty the power to weight ratio seems better with the 6K.It has a better feel and seems more balanced.The hydraulic speed control adjumstment work quite nicely on the 6K. Back in the late '80's,we had a demo of a PC 360 [300 top 400 bottom] and our Local's oilers were told the same thing by the Komatsu on site R&D team about the symbol.Truth or fiction IDK and IDC :beatsme
I really get tired of uninformed inflammatory statements about one manufacturer over another. I have worked on most types of equipment in all manufacturer's lines and can say there are good and bad in all. I know I could make money with certain types of any brands. I would suggest that it would be better to point out the positives and negatives of each brand or state experiences that point to areas that would affect whether or not you could make money using that brand, rather than popping off like a broken sprinkler head. The same can be said about throwing rocks at other countries. Instead of complaining about who is doing what, I use the resources available to me to make things better for my family. If you don't like competing with other countries, don't purchase their products.
:crying
i see komatsu retired the 41. dozer had lots of power but seemed kinda of behind in the times with a manua transmission. now they have the 51 and im assuming mostly because im to lazy to check thier website that it is either hydrostatic or has a torqe converter like the 61 nd 65. anybody ran the 51??? they say it is heavier and wider than the 41