CASE Construction Equipment has donated a skid steer to Wichita Habitat for Humanity, expanding the manufacturer’s relationship with the international non-profit organization dedicated to improving lives through affordable home ownership. Globally, Habitat for Humanity has helped build, renovate and repair more than 600,000 decent, affordable houses sheltering more than 3 million people worldwide.

“This incredibly versatile machine will add efficiency and safety, and help meet many of the special challenges we face when working on urban infill lots in Wichita,” says Ann Fox, executive director, Wichita Habitat for Humanity. “The skid steer will be used to clear dead trees, concrete and brush from vacant lots. It also will manage dirt work, grade, unload and move construction materials and help set trusses. In the past large groups of volunteers would be assembled to do this work, or equipment was loaned or rented – adding complexity to scheduling.”

The SV340 skid steer from CASE Construction Equipment earned a slot on Equipment Today magazine’s 2017 Contractors’ Top 50 New Products list. The editorial teams from Equipment Today and ForConstructionPros.com compiled product inquiries and web page views, and inquiries from new products featured in Equipment Today over a 12-month period from May 2016 to April 2017. The result is the 2017 Contractors’ Top 50 New Products, a listing of the industry’s favored products.

With a rated operating capacity of 3,400-pounds and bucket breakout force of 9,531-pounds, the 90-horsepower SV340 is CASE’s most powerful skid steer ever built. The SV340 offers optional high-flow (38.7 gpm at 3,450 psi) and enhanced high-flow (35 gpm at 4,000 psi) auxiliary hydraulics for operating a broad range of high capacity attachments such as cold planers and mulching heads. Heavy-duty 14 x 17.5 tires, additional counterweights and a long wheelbase provide a stable platform for work in all terrains.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued new rules related to exposure to silica dust on construction sites – those rules went into effect on June 23, 2016, and compliance for construction sites is required by June 23, 2017. These rules apply to any site that will “drill, cut, crush, or grind silica-containing materials such as concrete and stone” .

Other cities, sites and developers have their own rules about airborne particulate on the jobsite – rules that may disqualify contractors from participating if they don’t engage in approved dust mitigation practices.

CASE Construction Equipment announces that its manufacturing facility in Wichita, Kansas has produced its 300,000th CASE skid steer/compact track loader. The commemorative edition TR270 compact track loader rolled off the production line on March 13th, 2017 and will be shipped to Southeastern Equipment Co. in Brunswick, Ohio.

Established in 1974, the 11+ acre Wichita facility houses both skid steer loader and compact track loader product manufacturing, as well as dedicated research and development. The plant recently received a Silver Level World Class Manufacturing (WCM) certification. WCM is one of the global manufacturing industry’s highest standards for the integrated management of manufacturing plants and processes. It is a pillar-structured system based on continuous improvement, designed to eliminate waste and loss from the production process by identifying objectives such as zero injuries, zero defects, zero breakdowns and zero waste.

The SV340, CASE Construction Equipment’s largest, most powerful skid steer loader to date, has been honored with a 2016 Innovative Iron Award from Compact Equipment.

The awards are presented annually, highlighting the most inventive off-highway equipment, diesel engines, hand tools and OEM services and systems released to the market. According to the magazine, “with a serious shortage of skilled workers, contractors are specifically searching for the most innovative machinery to help offset workforce woes and increase production and performance.”

CASE Construction Equipment and Central Machinery provided equipment and product/training support to veteran-led disaster response organization Team Rubicon for use in training 10 new participants in its heavy equipment training program at Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge. The training included critical project work removing man-made islands in low-lying wetland areas to improve the habitat for birds and waterfowl.

“We’re tearing down these islands and smoothing it out to return these wetlands to the way Mother Nature intended them to be,” says Steve Fox, engineering equipment operator, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. “It opens up the water and creates more of a natural habitat. Team Rubicon has been great. This is something that’s going to take us a few years to complete – they’ve helped us get farther along than we would be – it offers them a training area, and we’re getting good work done on the refuge.”