1970
Since this era, the focus of domestic demand gradually started shifting from bulldozers to hydraulic shovels. Additional considerations, such as ease of operation, also became an important aspect of design.
505 and 507 were developed after conducting market research, based on the findings that small models with a bucket capacity of 0.6m3 and 0.8m3 were in a high demand. While other Pay loaders for the domestic market were developed with International Harvester based on a technical partnership, Komatsu developed these two models on its own with their original design.
A Wheel loader of this class has a wide range of usage including urban engineering, landscaping, golf course conditioning, forestry, animal husbandry, and so forth. The total hours of annual operation tended to be short, averaging at about 500 hours, and it usually has a variety of operators rather than exclusive workers. As a result it was developed in a way that could be used for many purposes focusing on ease of operation for various drivers including women.
(Top)505 Bucket capacity: 0.6m3
(Bottom)507 Bucket capacity: 0.8m3
Wheel loader
It was 1949 when the first wheel loader was manufactured in Japan, however, it was not until mid 1960's when Komatsu entered the wheel loader market aligning with International Harvester. From JH series in the beginning, to the 500 series, to Komatsu's original WA series, our wheel loaders have met the needs of construction sites by scaling up, coping with the environment and adopting advanced technology such as mechatronics and IT.
