Caterpillar is conducting a three year research to develop material and application method for earthmoving equipment application .The Structurally Integrated Coating for Wear and Corrosion (SICWC) program is cost shared by Caterpillar and DOE and plasma transfer arc welding (PTA is one of the techniques being explored.

Several proprietary materials were developed. Dry Sand Rubber wheel, pin abrasion test and Caterpillar proprietary wear test were conducted. Result shows that these materials perform superiorly against baseline material and several commercially available materials.