energy efficiency.

For a company such as Caterpillar - a manufacturer of

construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, and
industrial gas turbines - looking specifically at the fuel burned in the
aggregate of all its machines, around 60 to 70 percent of that fuel used is
consumed by the hydraulic system. So as Caterpillar looks to control owning
and
operating costs of its machinery, a major area to hone in on is hydraulic

Hydraulics will be part of our future platforms for a long time because the
technology allows a very flexible routing of power."

Key Areas of Focus

To understand Caterpillar's energy-conscious approach to

hydraulics, let's first look at the three "hows" driving Caterpillar plans.

According to Utley, the first "how" is thinking about

hydraulic system efficiency and it starts with attention to details such as all
of the bends, leak sources, radii and transitions in flow that can be targeted
to improve efficiency at the component level.