Combining Expertise in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering
Wyoming Machinery Company is a Caterpillar dealer that has served 16 counties in Wyoming for over 47 years. Originally established in Casper, the company has four other facilities throughout Wyoming supporting the mining, construction, oil and gas and other industries.
WMC recognized a shortcoming in the industry: that machine attachments, such as augers, brooms, excavator buckets, stump grinders, etc. were not interchangeable between work machines (tractors, skid steers, etc.). For example, it was not possible to easily attach and reliably control a Bobcat motor grader with a Caterpillar multi-terrain loader. Previously, doing so would require extensive, custom re-wiring and, if done improperly, could result in costly damage to either or both units.
The solution, which we were tasked to protect, included the development of an easily-installable conversion module that could receive control input signals from any brand of work machine and produce control output control signals in harmony with the mechanics of the attachment, while concurrently generating appropriate hydraulic flow control signals.
Underwood & Associates successfully obtained patent rights to this invention in the United States, Canada and Australia under patents entitled “Systems and Methods for Attachment Control Signal Modulation.” See, for example, US Patent US 9,080,319.
