Yutani-Poclain a Japanese-French Collaboration (#ThrowbackThursday)

Someone spoke to me at the recent Plantworx Show, and said that he really appreciates the coverage we give on the blog, looking back at the old construction machines from years gone by, suggesting that we are the only ones on mainstream social media, still dedicating space to classic plant, so I am delighted to bring more material.

We are indebted as ever to French mega machinery enthusiast Eric Nialcop for these historic images of machines from the collaboration between the Japanese company Yutani and Poclain who were a famous French manufacturer before being gobbled up by the J.I. CASE organization.

Yutani’s roots can be traced as far back as 1917 in Osaka, and the Yutani Machinery Works Co Ltd, was established in 1922. The company like many, produced rope-controlled excavation equipment, up until the early 1960’s.

A licensing agreement was signed in 1962 which would see Yutani manufacturing hydraulic machines based on Poclain designs, and production began a year later with the first model being the quirky looking but hugely successful TY45 wheeled excavator. In the Mid 1970's the Poclain name was eventually dropped and the machines simply became known as Yutani, with new models being added to the range, but still featuring Poclain technology and components under the skin.

Another unusual machine was the SL1400 swivel loader seen below, this machine functioned like a tracked loader but was able to swivel the upper-carriage, loader arms and forward tipping bucket, I’m not sure if full 360-degree rotation was possible or if it was limited to 180-degrees.

The last machine in this collection of images, looks to be more Japanese in design, and I have no details on what model this was, it almost looks like something from the Mitsubishi, Hitachi or even Kobelco stables, with whom they also had a working relationship deal with, not doubt one of you out there will have the answer?

Thanks as ever to Eric Nialcop and all photo credits go to him.