Founded | 1973 |
---|---|
Headquarters | Peterlee, County Durham, England |
The DJB Engineering Ltd was founded in 1973 in Peterlee, County Durham in England by David John Bowes Brown a British mechanical engineer. The company was renamed as Artix Ltd in 1984 after Caterpillar bought the rights to the Designs.
History[]
The firm built its first Ariculated Dump Truck (ADT), a model D250 in 1974, based on a Caterpillar drive train. The trucks were marketed exclusively through "Caterpillar" dealers world wide as the major components were all "Caterpillar". The range was expanded and sales grew steadily with Caterpillar buying the rights to the design & branding them as CAT in 1984 and eventually buying the company out in 1995. The firm was founded by David J B Brown, an engineer with a history of involvement in innovative design. He had worked for Chaseside, Bray, Muir-Hill, and went on to start DJB Engineering in 1973. After selling the design rights to Caterpillar in 1984 he went on to buy Bedford trucks from General Motors in 1987 and renamed the firm AWD (GM retained the Bedford brand name). David Brown also patented the Multidrive concept and marketed it to the military and quarry and mine users as a heavy duty semi on-off highway vehicle.
Earthmover sales and Off Road Highway Trucks stockists usually sell these vehicles under the both names as the DJB and Cat. The heavier models the D350, the D400 with the later D450, the D450 and the 1990s D500 and its bigger brother D550 all of these models would also be employed in other derivatives such as pipecarriers, logcarriers and quarry vehicles specially the 6X6 versions were the most popular thanks to its excellent offroad traction and mechanicals. The range was expanded and sales grew steadily with Caterpillar buying the rights to the design & branding them as CAT in 1984, and eventually buying the company out in 1995.
Model range[]
- D25- First ever DJB successful ADT of 1976 a 25 Ton model later updated versions with 4X4 axles.
- D250- A late 1970s-80s 25-28 Ton 6X4 ADT with first and second driven axles.
- D275-A late 1970s-80s 30 Ton 6X4 model with new suspension and longer chassis and low sprung frontaxle.
- D300- A new 1980s 30 Ton ADT model designed for the mine industry and tunnel construction with lowcab.
- D330- A late 1970s-1980s lowsprung frontaxle with both new wider cab, new lights fitted 6X4 form.
- D350- A 1980s new model with 6X6 axles, fitted with CAT Turbodiesel engines new chassis.
- D350B- Much like the above but was also available as a 6X6 logcarrier, pipecarrier and forest truck.
- D400- A new 1980s-90s 40 Ton ADT 6X6 model with a new oneman drivers cab and stiffer new 6X6 axles.
- D450 - 1980s-1990s model, same as above but available as the D450 6X4 or the D450 6X6.
- D500- 1980s-1990s unit this time a completely redesigned model, much wider and longer with standard 6X6.
- D550- The heaviest DJB model, a large 55 ton ADT of 1986 but later dropped after its sales were slow.
- Cat D740+ Cat D740E E= Ejector in place of tipping body
See also[]
Other ADT manufacturers[]
- Aardvark Engineering
- Bell
- Caterpillar Inc.
- DDT Engineering
- Hudson - Leeds-all dumpers
- Hydrema
- MT Engineering
- Moxy
- Terex
- Shawnee Poole - Forerunner to the ADT - Articulated Tractor + Dump trailer combination
- Volvo Construction
References[]
- Classic Plant & Machinery Magazine, Vol4 no.1, September 2005.
- Ford Tractor Conversions, by Stuart Gibbard.
- Caterpillar Chronicles by Eric C. Orlemman.