Page 273 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

The reason we exist
Argonaut’s equipment superintendent, Chris Hendricks with Wilma
break a bit.” Argonaut’s equipment superintendent, Chris Hendricks, built a newer, improved version out of steel plates for a much more accurate control test weight. “Wilma is exactly a ton. She’s got a little hook on top so they can hook her up with a chain and load her on and off a trailer without dropping her—like Fred,” explains Mata. “With Wilma, we can set her down and she’s not going to break. Bringing Wilma on board doubled our productivity.”
In late May 2019, Peterson built its own test rock— Fred II—out of steel blocks. “Dino Barsotti built him in the San Leandro weld shop so we could have our own test weight,” says Mata. Fred II now resides at Peterson’s Chico store, where the local field tech can haul him to a jobsite and go through the whole re-cal- ibration and verification process in a timely fashion, when needed.
In June 2019, Caterpillar engineers came out to Par- adise to see the onboard scale problem for themselves and come up with a more permanent solution. In Sep- tember, Cat issued version 7 of the Cat PayLoad soft-
ware and deployed it in all Argonaut’s Next Gen excavators. “During that time, we built some really strong bonds between our customer and the different branches and departments of Peterson,” says Mata. “Managing a brand-new technology and making it work was a challenge. Using the Flintstones was just a small way to inject humor into an otherwise frustrating situation. At the end of the day, you have to remember to have fun in what you’re doing—otherwise all you’re doing is work.”
Despite all the obstacles the Peterson-SITECH team encountered with the Cat PayLoad systems, they were still able to help bring the customer over the finish line. The job finished in October 2019, four months ahead of schedule.
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