In theThick of it

Transcription

In theThick of it

Fish Story: Islanders make a channel for spawning salmon
Ready for Change: Embracing the new normal
In the
Thickof it
WINTER 2008
www.finning.ca
Cougar Inlet Logging
stands tall in the
B.C. forest
Tumbler Ridge’s Time
Coal sparks a mountain town
Young and Restless
Fleet of Foot
Kamloops contractor
creates opportunity
The new Cat frac pump
makes Tier 2 a breeze
Plus!
Auditing
your safety
program
A FINNING (CANADA) PUBLICATION Non-deliverable mail should be directed to: 10259 105 Street, Edmonton, AB T5J 1E3 Canadian Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement #40020055
Best Value.
.
Period
Cat Skid Steer loader,
Fully equipped
$
From as little as
18/day
Caterpillar 226B2 Skid Steer loader
Cat Mini-hydraulic
excavator, Fully equipped
$
From as little as
E v E r y yA r D N E E D s A C At
®
The new Cat C-Series Skid Steer offers comfort like the
big Cat machines. Noise and dust are reduced thanks to a
pressurized and sealed cab – an industry first. The optional
air ride seat delivers even more comfort. Plus the wide cab
opening makes for easy entry and exit.
Count on Finning for the best in dealer support.
Be part oF the legaCy.
1-888-finning | finning.ca
29/day
Caterpillar 303C Cr hydraulic excavator
*O.A.C. Taxes and finance fees extra. Buyout
based on fair market value. Pricing based on 48
payment operating lease.
18
30
38
Departments
4
6
The Finning Focus
Lower your costs with Finning used equipment
Groundbreaker
Firefighting Cat; To Russia With Love; Wild Rose Motocross;
Thinking Even Bigger; Still Cleaning Stanley; The Romanian Fleet
12 Yesterday/Today
Caterpillar introduced heavyduty wheel dozers to keep pace
with high-speed, rubber-tired
earthmovers
13 Yellow Iron
New products and services
from Finning
22 Safety First
The best safety program in the
world isn’t that useful if it’s not
audited regularly
34 Field Test
Never mind the knight, it’s the
easy-to-use yellow armour you want
to extend the life of your machine
CONTENTS
Features
S P E C I A LR E P O R T
14 Light on Its Fleet
Enerflow Industries turns heads with
its new 2500-horsepower frac pump
18 Tomorrow’s Logger
Like its owner, Cougar Inlet Logging
is no run-of-the-mill company
WHERE COAL IS KING
23 Tumbler Ridge’s Time
24 Tomorrow’s Town
Tumbler Ridge’s fortunes are tied
to coal. The town’s looking bullish
these days as the population swells
and real estate values reignite
30 Hearts Afire
A Kamloops contractor is making his
mark, using yellow iron and Finning
to gain the home team advantage
26 Coal Power
38 Ready for Change
A venerable logging company
keeps ahead by embracing industry
challenges
42 Count On Us
www.finning.ca
Western Canadian Coal couldn’t
be busier. Perry Creek Mine has
heralded happy times for the
company
6
36 Meeting the Challenge It’s the spawn of a new day for
some salmon on Vancouver Island
41 Bill’s Business
Bill’s Finning rep gives him more
than the usual amount of customer
support
WINTER 2008
On the Cover
Cougar Inlet Logging
Photograph: Thea Stratton
Winter 2008 • tr acks & treads The Finning Focus
Lower Your Costs With
Finning Pre-owned
With times a-changin’ again, pre-owned
yellow iron is a flexible option that will keep contractors light on their feet and
ready to shift with the sands
By Gordon McDougall
Manager,
Corporate Equipment Remarketing
B
arcelona, Dubai, Stettler or Port Hardy
– there’s no telling where we might find
the right used equipment for Finning customers. Recently, our international buyer,
Jim Chomyshen, picked up nine badly
needed Cat 777 haul trucks from a Cat
dealer across the pond. These 100-ton rigid
frame trucks are in short supply, so the used
option’s looking good.
Readers may not be aware that Finning
(Canada) is the largest used equipment
dealer in North America. Customers can
select from nearly 600 pieces, ranging from
skid steers and former county graders all
the way up to scrapers and large mining
pieces – they’re all detailed on the website –
www.Finning.ca.
If they prefer, potential buyers can test
drive the inventory at any of Finning’s used
equipment centres in Edmonton, Calgary,
Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray, Surrey or
Prince George.
With the R-word making headlines
lately, borrowing costs on the upswing and
exchange rates headed who knows where,
the used option is smart business. It can
help lower overall operating and carrying
costs and improve cash flow.
Finning’s used equipment team can
provide near-new machine productivity,
lower acquisition costs, machine histories,
tr acks & treads • Winter 2008
warranty transfers and access to financing.
Before Finning advertises used items for
sale, they’re often reconditioned. Skilled
teams of certified heavy duty technicians
tune up engines and hydraulic systems,
upgrade tires or tracks, fix leaks and, most
importantly, complete all necessary safety
product improvements.
Sometimes, all it takes is a quick vacuum
of the cab to prep a newer machine for sale,
but we go a lot further when required. At
the new Centre of Excellence in Red Deer,
Finning has increased rebuild and overhaul
capacity significantly. Here, technical teams
can take a dusty core, virtually abandoned
at a mining operation, and bring it back
to life with certified power train rebuilds.
That’s the beauty of Caterpillar equipment;
it’s built to be rebuilt.
Our used equipment management
team, which boasts several hundred years
of combined experience, has developed a
range of reliable contacts worldwide. Our
team (which includes Lucas Fennel, Dave
Kandler, Russ Acheson, John deMilliano,
Kelly Hinch, Norm Trottier, Travis Fredland,
Jim Chomyshen, Chee Chik and me, Gordon McDougall) has specialized experience
in most equipment disciplines, ranging
from coastal forestry to underground mining and everything in between. And Finning
isn’t just a source for large construction,
mining and forestry equipment. It also has
a healthy supply of used skid steers, miniexcavators and multi-terrain loaders, priced
as low as $10,000.
Our expertise and worldwide network
serves you two ways. First, we’ll work with
your local Finning rep to ensure you get the
right machine at the right price, prepped the
way you want it, when you want it.
Second, we can help you dispose of your
surplus equipment through our consignment option, which many customers prefer to sending equipment to the auction.
Consignment gives sellers more control in
terms of timing, price realization and access
to potential buyers worldwide. So far this
year we’ve facilitated about $30 million in
consignment business.
Two years ago, there was a shortage of
D5 through D7-sized tractors for our oilfield customers. Now the economy is in
transition – mining equipment has been in
short supply. In either case, the Finning used
team works overtime to make sure you get
what you need to successfully bid and complete your work.
The bottom line: regardless of the
economic cycle, Finning has the resources
and used equipment team you can rely on
to get you the best value.
www.finning.ca
Letters & Feedback
winter 2008 Volume 48, No. 4
Publisher
Ruth Kelly [email protected]
associate Publisher Daska Davis
[email protected] Executive Editor
Jeff Howard
[email protected]
Editor
Mifi Purvis
[email protected]
Editorial Advisors
Danna Beatty, Crystal Chokshi, Brad Ledig, Michelle Loewen, Patrick King art director
Charles Burke [email protected]
designer
Rodrigo López Orozco
Production COORDINATOR
Betty-Lou Smith
Production technician
Geoff Cwiklewich
circulation coordinator Amanda Dammann
[email protected]
Advertising representative
Anita McGillis
[email protected]
Contributing Writers
Robin Brunet, Caitlin Crawshaw, David DiCenzo, Katherine Fawcett, Keith Haddock, Noel Lacadie, Rick Overwater, Tony Kryzanowski, Jim Stirling, Contributing PHOTOGRAPHERS
and illustrators
Ricardo Alberto Leiva, Heff O’Reilley, Thea Stratton, Rick Tolhurst, Chip Zdarsky Tracks & Treads is published to provide its readers with relevant business, technology, product and service information in a lively and engaging manner.
Tracks & Treads is published for
Finning (Canada) by
Venture Publishing Inc.
10259-105 Street
Edmonton, Alberta T5J 1E3
Phone: 780-990-0839
Fax: 780-425-4921
FROM TERMINAL TO VD: I’ve just received my first Tracks &
Treads because I’m now a registered member of the retirees
from Finning Tractor. It’s been a long time since I have read
one, and it brought back a lot of good memories. I worked for
Finning in Vancouver, started my apprenticeship in 1962 with
guys like Chuck Baird, George Hilchie, and Joe Cindrich. We
moved from the old shop on Terminal Avenue to our new shop
on Great Northern Way. Maury Young was the “boss” then,
and I remember him as a person who could call you by your
first name even if he hadn’t talked with you in a long time.
I transferred to Victoria and completed my apprenticeship
there, working with Dave Marriot, John Allen, Hugh Ramsey
and Eddy Vowels. Ed was my mentor, a great guy to work
with. In 1972, I left Finning, set off on my own and operated
my business, called Victoria Diesel Service. I thought it was
a great name, until I realized that my customers had shortened the name to “VD Service.” But I operated that business
for five years before accepting a job as a Heavy Duty Diesel
Instructor at Camosun College Trades Training branch in Victoria, where I spent 24 years doing the job I really loved,
helping people learn a trade that they could take anywhere
in the world. I kept track of all my graduates who completed
their apprenticeships and it is a very interesting to look back.
I still have ex-students looking me up to say hello and tell me
what they are up to. Just looking at the picture (on page 69
of the Fall 2008 issue) reminded me of all those good times
working with a first-class company.
Ray Howard, Victoria, B.C.
IN PURSUIT OF PIONEERS: I just want to let you know how
much I enjoyed the spring edition of Tracks & Treads magazine.
I have known Harold Hewlett and Martin Marsolais for many
years, and your article really captured the character of both
of these guys. The picture on page 24 of the Marsolais article
is of a 7-axle Freightliner logger being loaded by a Cat 330B
log loader. This truck is not owned by Martin Marsolais but by
Burke Purdon Enterprises Ltd. who is a contract log hauler in
the Prince George area. Our dealership has sold Burke Purdon
all his Cat-powered Freightliner log trucks over the years. It was
great to see articles on some of the pioneers of the industry and
the equipment they have bought and still own today.
Tom Coffey, Prince George, B.C.
Tell us what you think
Tracks & Treads would love to hear from you. Tell us what you think of the magazine’s stories, columns and look, so that we can improve it and make it a more interesting read.
Contents © 2008 by Finning (Canada)
No part of this publication should be reproduced without written permission.
www.finning.ca
Send your comments to executive editor Jeff Howard by email at [email protected] or the old-fashioned way to: Jeff Howard, Tracks & Treads,
Finning (Canada), 16830 – 107 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta T5P 4C3
www.finning.ca
Winter 2008 • tr acks & treads News & Reviews
by david dicenzo
Wild Rose Motocross
Serious dirt bike riders throughout Canada are
well aware of Blackfoot Park in Calgary. The
80-acre, six-track park is a unique site in Cowtown, a place where riders converge for smaller
seasonal club events like Thursday Night Motos
or much bigger competitions like the Canadian
MX race held every summer.
While the finely tuned bikes have been
zipping around the park for years now,
a new, somewhat slower machine is making
a big difference at Blackfoot – a Cat D5K dozer.
“Basically, we use the Cat to prepare the tracks
for riding,” says Corey Holte, treasurer of the
Wild Rose Motocross Association.
“It rips the ground where the bikes will ride,
then we use an industrial roto tiller to make
a finer soil base. Then we water it with a
water truck.”
And presto, a pristine track is born.
As treasurer of the 24-year-old association,
Holte was the one who spearheaded the move
to lease the new dozer from Finning. Wild Rose
Motocross had owned an old Cat, and the need
for more and more specialized track building
and grooming meant that it was time to update
the equipment. So Holte got on the phone and
gave Finning a call. “Cat has a high quality
name in the construction industry,” says Holte.
“Finning has a good program, a good maintenance schedule, which was great for us.”
In addition to digging up the track, Holte
says the Cat is used to build jumps and obstacles on the track for the races. One of the association’s mandates has been to make Blackfoot
Park as aesthetically pleasing as possible,
much like a golf course, so the dozer is also
being used for landscaping projects around the
park grounds.
“We’re definitely happy with its performance,” Holte says of the new Caterpillar dozer.
“The applications we use it for, it definitely
serves a good purpose.”
MAKING THE LEAP
World record holder Robbie Maddison
of Australia jumped his dirt bike an
amazing 322 feet in a televised event
from Las Vegas last New Year’s Eve.
Known as the ‘The Wizard of Oz’,
Maddison is one of the world’s most
recognized long distance dirt bike
jumpers in history.
The Romanian Fleet
Romania, one of Europe’s oldest settled
regions, was struggling with a seriously
outdated motorway. By 2013, the huge,
$3-billion project will culminate in a
sleek new road connecting the middle of
the country with neighbouring country,
Hungary. The now 10-hour roadway slog
will take just three hours. The 400-kilometre stretch of the hilly Transylvania
Motorway will feature 300 bridges and
70 overpasses.
At the forefront of the project is Cat equipment, in the hands of construction giants
Bechtel and Enka. The pair of companies
brought in nearly 70 Cat machines for the
job and purchased almost the same number
again from local dealers, including
excavators, wheel loaders, articulated dump trucks, motor graders,
soil compactors, track-type tractors, pavers and generators.
Source: Cat.com
www.finning.ca
groundbreaker
The 18 units going to clients in Russia are
G3616s, the largest model in the Cat series.
The sheer size of the engines can cause logistical problems in terms of delivery, especially
in an icy place like Siberia.
“Moving huge equipment into very remote locations has its challenges,” says
Kavanagh. “The Russians are not unlike Canadians – they have to be very creative and
obviously, to do that, they need the equipment on site, on time.
“Timing was critical here.”
Kavanagh went to Russia to meet with
Enerflex executives to get a full understanding of their needs and timelines. The G3616s
are scheduled to be delivered in 2009.
Kavanagh says that a team effort was required to pull off the deal, from the sales staff
to the support staff.
“We wouldn’t have been able to put this
together without the input from these guys,”
he says. “They are very dedicated, they’re
engaged and they understand the significance of this and the importance of this to
Finning. It took a lot of people to make this
happen.
“We were always in constant communication. That was the key to the success of this
particular deal.”
To Russia With Love
Caterpillar has been producing its line of
G3600 series gas compression engines since
the mid 1990s. Unit sales of these beasts – they
sell for about $1.25 million each – have grown
from about two or three per year, back in the
1990s, to approximately 35 in 2008. There’s
250 of these G3600 units currently operating
in Finning (Canada) territory, suggesting that
Western Canada is one of the largest users of
this product anywhere on the planet.
But a recent mega-deal between Finning
and gas compression company Enerflex will
see 18 of these engines make their way to
three different customers in Siberia. Despite
a lineup of customers waiting to get their
hands on these in-demand engines, the deal,
worth close to $23 million, was finalized.
www.finning.ca
Working with Caterpillar, Finning was
able to convince Enerflex that the sale would
be of benefit to its operations, says Andy
Kavanagh, Finning’s products service sales
manager for gas compression OEM. “They
have other opportunities around the world,
other customers screaming for this product.
We were able to help them understand why
this would be beneficial as a larger, global
opportunity by using their resources to apply
these engines to these particular projects.”
The primary purpose of the G3600 engines is to act as drivers to produce the
horsepower that will in turn drive a gas compressor, Kavanagh says. The gas compressor
takes the gas out of the ground at a low pressure and brings it up to 1000 or 1200 psi.
ON THE GROUND
The Kremlin is a fortified complex in
the heart of Moscow that overlooks
the Moskva River to the south. The
walls and towers of the Kremlin were
built over 500 years ago, with the irregular triangle of the Kremlin wall
enclosing an area of about 275,000
square metres. The highest tower is the
Spasskaya, which is 71 metres tall.
Winter 2008 • tr acks & treads Firefighting Cat
In late September, Terrace, B.C., contractor Gerry Lozinski awoke to a call at 4:30 in
the morning. He knew right away something
was up and he was right. The Skenna Hotel,
a Terrace landmark and local watering hole
since the 1920s, was on fire. And the local
firefighters needed Lozinski’s help.
More specifically, they needed to borrow
his Cat CL320 excavator.
“This was the first time I ever did something that silly with the excavator,” says Lozinski. He gulped a coffee, spilling most of it,
as he lined up a low bed trailer to haul the excavator about 15 kilometres to the site. Then
he raced down there himself.
Lozinski, the owner of J.L.’s Excavating
Limited, already had some experience bat-
tling flames as a firefighter in the B.C. bush.
But this was a completely different job that
required a lot of co-ordination and patience.
The firefighters in Terrace wanted Lozinski
to use his Cat to push the burning walls of
the hotel away from a newer wine and beer
store adjacent to the site.
The task was a dangerous one, with
flames all around the Cat. Lozinski says
that the firefighters had to hose the machine
down to keep it wet and cool.
“The biggest concern was the air filters
catching on fire, but as long as the machine
stayed wet, we were OK,” says the 49-yearold native of Dawson, Manitoba. “I wouldn’t
advise too many contractors to do that.
“I never really thought about the danger.
I just concentrated on getting the fire under
control with the firemen. It was a really
tough one to put out.”
While some people have suggested
Lozinski get fitted for a straightjacket based
on his decision to help out at the Skenna
Hotel, he never hesitated to do what he
thought was right. Despite the potential danger, Lozinski and the durable Cat came out
none the worse for wear.
“My local insurance company saw the
pictures and said, ‘You know all of your insurance was voided when you did that because you put the machine in harm’s way?’”
he says. “I didn’t really think of that.”
Literally throwing the Cat into the fire
was certainly a first for Lozinski, who started his excavating company 20 years ago.
Aside from the praise and recognition he has
received for his help extinguishing the fire,
the Terrace businessman did earn himself a
new nickname from the firefighters.
“They called me the ‘crash test dummy,’”
he says with a laugh.
FIERY FACTS
The task was a dangerous
one, with flames all around
the Cat. Firefighters had to
hose the machine down to
keep it wet and cool.
The Alberta government’s Forestry Division is charged with suppressing forest
fires before they exceed two hectares.
Provincial Forest Fire Centre firefighters
use airtankers, patrol aircraft, helicopters,
dozers, crawlers, low-boys – anything
to get there fast and stay there until the
danger has passed. Air and ground wildfire-and-forest fighting crews have been
working closely together in Alberta since
the 1960s, when firefighters worked in
crews of 25. Today, the crew is an eightperson team under one leader. The equipment has changed from the old Caterpillar
D6C dozers of the 1960s to today’s D6XL
and D6M series high-track dozers with
enclosed, air conditioned cabs to protect
operators from heat, dust and noise.
www.finning.ca
groundbreaker
Finning’s
Night Out
PHOTOGRAPH courtesy nait
Thinking Even Bigger
In t he past, you read about
ThinkBIG, a NA I T apprenticeship
program sponsored by Finning and
Caterpillar. Well, now the relationship
between the school, Alberta’s important
trades and technical institute, Cat and
Finning goes even deeper.
In September, Finning and t he
Caterpillar Foundation, announced a
$3 million donation to NAIT’s Heavy
Equipment programs.
Finning is ponying up $1 million towards NAIT’s Heavy Equipment Technician and Industrial Heavy Equipment
www.finning.ca
Technology program, along with $1 million
in machines. Caterpillar is writing a cheque
for $1 million.
“Finning and the Caterpillar Foundation’s investment in NAIT allow us to
help these great companies with training
new employees and current employees on
the latest technology,” NAIT’s president
and CEO, Sam Shaw, said in a press release. “Partnerships like this help to offset
Alberta’s skills shortage.”
For Finning, an investment in NAIT demonstrates its commitment to customers
to help develop a workforce.
For 100 years now, the Alberta Association
of Municipal Districts and Counties has
helped rural Alberta evolve into the heart
of the province’s economy.
And, for the last 40 of them, Finning
has supported the AAMDC every
step of the way. The annual Finning
Evening was recently held at the Shaw
Conference Centre and this year’s theme
proved exciting for speed freaks – racing.
From the 16-inch remote-controlled car
races to the competition to see who could
produce the fastest pit stop, delegates
from all over Alberta enjoyed their night
in the spotlight.
FAST TIMES: Finning customer account
manager Patrick Kirychuk (above right) does
some well-timed lobbying with the AAMDC pit
crew. After the races, people kicked up their
heels on the dance floor
Winter 2008 • tr acks & treads Still Cleaning Stanley
Stanley Park, near Vancouver’s downtown
core, is renowned for its stunning beauty and
broad diversity of wildlife. But in December
2006 a windstorm turned the oasis into a disaster zone. “When we got hit by the storm, we had
significant damage to about 15 per cent of our
forest, which is approximately 640 acres,” says
Jim Lowden, Director of Special Projects for the
Vancouver parks board.
“It was a first of a kind,” he says. “It was significantly bigger than two previous storms, one
in 1934 and one in 1962.”
Lowden was one of the individuals tasked
with restoring Stanley Park, a job that seemed
incomprehensible immediately after the storm.
But now, two years and three recognition
awards later, the park’s restoration project is
about 90 per cent complete.
“Everybody stayed with the project from
start to finish,” says Lowden. “Everybody knew
what the specific environmental expectations
were. We ended up with some real pros who
came to understand that this wasn’t so much a
logging operation as a park salvage operation.
10 tr acks & treads • Winter 2008
“Some good things
have come out of
what started as
an awful mess.”
“They handled the job beautifully.”
And Stanley Park is indeed beautiful once
again, though it took an incredible amount of
work to get there. Lowden says the park was actually closed for just four days in the aftermath
of the storm. The decision to open it up to the
public after that period was an expensive and
time-consuming one.
“We had to try and work around the park
population, keep them away from the dangerous spots and still try to run a major forestry
operation,” says Lowden.
The crew had to contend with major failures
along a 100-foot high escarpment at the park’s
Prospect Point. Both geography and weather
were working against them. Prospect Point was
only accessible through narrow pinch points at
either end of the seawall. Conventional trucks
were useless and only articulated trucks could
get in and out, one truck at a time with no turnaround points.
With thousands of people using Stanley
Park on a daily basis, Lowden refers to the work
as a “very interesting balancing act.” The forestry operation is now complete and an estimated
25 per cent of fallen material remains on the
ground, which represents the same volume of
coarse weed debris you would find in an untouched temperate coastal forest. Lowden says
about 10,000 logs were salvaged and sold to
help fund the massive clean-up bill.
He adds that part of the operating policy
was to have a light footprint and to do as little
damage to the forest floor as possible. With that
in mind, they gladly accepted two hoe chuckers
donated by Finning to help with the work.
“They were great,” says Lowden. “It made
all the difference in the world. We went in there
and carefully picked everything out, minimizing damage.
“We had brush mats everywhere we moved.
It did no damage to the forest floor in the process,” he says. “It came off brilliantly.”
The Vancouver parks board’s thoughtful
approach to the restoration project has earned
them three separate awards: the Community Stewardship Award given by the Union of
British Columbia Municipalities; the PERC Award
for Innovation and Ingenuity from the British
Columbia Recreation and Parks Association;
and the Canadian Parks and Recreation Award.
The successful blueprint has also fostered
strong relationships with the players involved,
from government to local universities such as
UBC and Simon Fraser. The effort is now recognized as an appropriate response model for
handling disasters in other environmentally
sensitive areas.
“There has been a vastly heightened public
awareness of the complexities of the forest,”
adds Lowden, who will be starting his wellearned retirement soon.
“Some good things have come out of what
started as an awful mess.”
www.finning.ca
By the Numbers
Number of lodging and
spa packages available
that offer facials and
the chance to operate
heavy equipment:
1
Daily rate for the “Excavate and Exfoliate”
spa getaway at the Steamboat Grand Resort
Hotel in Steamboat Springs, Colorado:
$340
Percentage of people,
aged 18 to 27, who text
message while driving:
Daily rate to rent a Cat
skid steer loader from your
local Cat Rental Store,
no facial included:
37
$187.50
Percentage increase in
the likelihood of a crash
for a driver using a cell
phone:
400
Number of dog “couples”
who participated in the
largest ever dog wedding
ceremony:
178
Price of a dog wedding dress
at PetHaven.com:
$122.95
www.finning.ca
Cost of a tuxedo:
$29.95
Year when green energy
will overtake natural gas to
become the second-largest
source of electricity:
2015
Percentage
increase in
Ontario’s wind
power capacity
since 2003:
6,200
Winter 2008 • tr acks & treads 11
Yesterday/ Today
Story by keith haddock
Mid-century dozers mostly still ran on slow crawler tracks.
they had to catch up with faster earthmovers
High Speed
Bulldozing
SPRING TO THE STEP:
This 834 wheel dozer is
push loading scrapers
and carries a rear springloaded push block for
even faster loading in dry
conditions
IDEAL MACHINES:
Wheel dozers such as this
Caterpillar 824 were ideal
for cleaning under shovels
in large surface mines
gines, power shift three-speed transmissions
and articulated frames that combined long
wheelbase stability with short frame manoeuvrability. The transmission also included a
torque divider system engineered by Cat for
these dozers. It allowed the torque converter
to automatically adjust rimpull to the load
by correctly proportioning direct drive and
torque converter drive. The hydraulic system
included two double-acting five-inch hydraulic
cylinders that accomplished steering
through an angle of 44 degrees in each
direction, a single cylinder to raise the blade
and another pair of cylinders to tilt the
blade up to 23 degrees.
The 824 carried a standard dozer blade
measuring 13 feet, three inches wide, and 23
feet, two inches long. It weighed 32 tons. The
834 manoeuvred a 14-foot, eight-inch blade
that was 25 feet, five inches long, and tipped
the scales at 45 tons. Both boasted a top speed
of more than 20 miles per hour.
In 1966, Caterpillar increased the horsepower of its wheel dozers to 300 and 400
respectively. The 834 was discontinued in
1974 but returned as the larger 834B in 1982
with 450 flywheel horsepower. Compactor
versions, with steel tamping-foot wheels replacing the rubber tires, became available in
the late 1960s. A smaller 170-horsepower
model, the 814, appeared in 1970. Cat has
continually upgraded all of these models
over the years to the present H-series and expanded the line upwards in 1997 when it
took over the designs and manufacturing
rights of two large wheel dozers made by Tiger
Engineering Pty. Ltd. of Australia. These are the
forerunners of Caterpillar’s two current largest
wheel dozers, the 844H and 854H, with 627
and 800 flywheel horsepower respectively. www.finning.ca
photographs courtesy keith haddock
When high-speed, rubber-tired earthmovers
became the industry norm in the 1960s, it was
clear that heavy-duty wheel dozers would have
to keep pace. Caterpillar set to work.
High-speed earthmoving became possible
in the 1950s because of improved technology
and the introduction of rubber-tired off-road
vehicles. Crawler-type wagons and pull-type
scrapers hauled by crawler tractors were losing favour to motor scrapers and specialized
off-highway trucks. Improved technology, in
the form of wide-base tubeless tires, enabled
earthmoving machines to move faster. In the
early 1960s, Caterpillar introduced its first offhighway trucks and expanded its new 600-
series motor scraper line to include the
largest scrapers ever built by the company.
But tractors and dozers in the earthmoving
field mostly still ran on slow-moving crawler
tracks, so something was needed to keep pace
with high-speed earthmoving made possible with modern wheeled vehicles. Enter the
wheeled dozer.
In 1963, Caterpillar launched two heavyduty wheel dozer models, the 824 and
834, initially rated at 250 and 360 flywheel
horsepower respectively. From the outset,
Caterpillar realized that wheel dozers must
be designed as heavy-duty earthmoving
machines from the ground up, and not
adaptations to agricultural tractors or wheel
loaders. They had to be built with appropriate transmissions and gear ratios for lugging
dozer work, and strong frames with dozer arm
mountings positioned low, for efficient load
transfer and machine stability. These essential features provided maximum reliability in
adverse conditions.
The 824 and 834 were advanced machines for their day, with turbocharged en-
yellowiron
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www.finning.ca
www.finning.ca
Enerflow Industries turns
heads with the new 2500horsepower frac pump
Story by Tony Kryzanowski
The Cat 3512C engine
W
PUSSYCAT, PUSSYCAT: Light and easy to move,
Enerflow’s new gas frac pump sets the bar higher
www.finning.ca
e’re always trying to be on the leading edge of technology,” says Mark
Williamson, who owns Enerflow Industries along with fellow industry
veteran Larry Lindholm. Between
them, they have the experience to
recognize the need for a powerful machine,
and when they need to finesse that power.
That’s why the Calgary-based company
has designed North America’s first 2500horsepower fracturing pump, nicknamed
“the Pussycat” for its light weight, quiet operation and relative ease of transportation.
Until now, frac pumps have been limited
to 2250-horsepower because a larger horsepower engine at Tier 2 emission levels wasn’t
available. Tier 2 emissions standards, introduced by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency in 2004, and govern pollutants, such
as sulphur, in a vehicle’s exhaust.
Caterpillar recently entered the market
with a lighter weight, 2500-horsepower, Tier
2 engine, helping Enerflow respond to the
need for a frac pump that puts greater horsepower on the ground with a smaller environmental footprint. This development is
especially important as fracturing uses a lot
of energy.
Fracturing an oil- or gas-bearing formation helps petroleum companies increase recovery in sites where production is tailing off.
Typically, a well-servicing company brings a
series of frac pumps to a well site, depending on the nature of the oil- or gas-bearing
formation. The frac units pump a fracturing fluid into the formation under very high
pressure, which expands the formation.
After introducing the fracturing fluid, the
COMPANY PROFILE: Enerflow Industries
frac pump then injects a proppant, such as
silica, into the formation to keep the fracture
open. Because the formation is under greater
pressure and the sand is permeable, the remaining oil and gas in the formation flows
through the sand into the well bore and to
the surface, increasing recovery from a less
productive site.
The Pussycat frac pump, featuring Cat’s
Tier 2-compliant 3512C engine and a TH55
transmission, produces 2400 hydraulic
horsepower. The need for fewer frac pumps
on site translates into cost savings and a
rosier bottom line for Enerflow
Industries’ list of blue-ribbon
well-servicing customers. These
include Calfrac, Century Well
Ser vice, Schlumberger, Halliburton, Trican, Gasfrac, Pride
San Antonio and Pioneer.
Once Caterpillar entered the
market with the 3512C engine,
Enerflow Industries’ reputation,
knowledge and experience made it a natural
choice to develop the first 2500-horsepower
pump. As a Cat Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), Enerflow is authorized to offer
its products with Caterpillar engines and components anywhere in the world. In Western
Canada, Finning supports sales and service.
Enerflow Industries has a line of more
than 30 custom-designed products, spanning a range of oilfield service rigs and
equipment for services such as fracturing,
cementing, hydration, acidizing, nitrogen, drilling and coil tubing. Many of the
company’s products feature Caterpillar
engines ranging from 225-horsepower to
2500-horsepower.
Company founders L indholm and
Williamson struck out on their own in 2003,
when the oil and gas industry was still in a
recession, and then experienced a couple
of growth years before business really
took off in 2005. The partners have several
decades of industr y experience in the
well-servicing sector. When they launched
Enerflow, it was with considerable support.
Both have outstanding reputations for their
ability to provide products and respond to
industry needs. The Pussycat frac pump is a
prime example.
“There was a lot of demand in 2006 in particular,” says Lindholm, “and people couldn’t
get their equipment fast enough. It was whatever you could do to produce equipment. We
ramped up to respond to market demand.”
At one time, Enerflow Industries operated from five facilities in Calgary, peaking at
300 specialized vehicles in 2006. Since then,
the company has consolidated to two locations totalling about 200,000 square feet.
Demand isn’t quite so high, but the company still expects to produce more than 100
frac pumps in 2008.
Until now, frac pumps have
been limited to 2250horsepower because a larger
horsepower engine at Tier 2
emission level wasn’t available.
At present, it has about 250 employees and
the ability to custom design a well-servicing
product from concept to fabrication. Because of its size, Enerflow Industries is also
able to maintain a fairly large inventory of its
most popular products, which sets it apart
from competitors. The company continues
to demonstrate that it is an industry leader,
able to provide well-servicing with the latest
proven technology.
Along with its operations in Calgary,
Enerflow will soon open a production facility in Texas. Its customers in that region also
want a greater local service support presence.
Expansion to Texas gives the company easier access to port facilities, as its products are
shipped around the world to such far reaches
as Russia, South America, Poland, the Middle East and the Far East.
“We supply equipment to areas of the
world wherever there is an oil and gas industry and where there is a need for well-servicing equipment,” says Lindholm.
The contributions that Lindholm and Williamson have made to the advancement of
Western Canada’s petroleum industry cannot
be overstated. Enerflow often develops solutions that become the industry standard.
A good example is a project that the com-
pany recently completed with its customer,
Gasfrac. This project is designed to respond
to pressure placed on the industry to use less
water in its processes. Working with Gasfrac,
Enerflow developed technology, which includes the Caterpillar 3512C engine and
TH55 transmission, that uses no water at all.
This achievement has captured the industry’s attention.
The fact that the Caterpillar 3512C is a
Tier 2 engine also gives Enerflow a significant sales advantage. Having less impact on
the environment offers critical benefits.
“Our customers are under a lot of pressure
to be more environmentally conscious,” says
Williamson, and many have approached Enerflow to help them find solutions to their
environmental challenges.
Williamson says Caterpillar’s 3512C engine is what really makes their new
Pussycat frac pump purr, because the surrounding engine components were already
designed to handle a 2500-horsepower engine. The challenge was to maintain the
horsepower and develop a mobile package
light enough to be legally transported from
one location to another. Caterpillar was the
first engine supplier to step up to the plate
with both a properly engineered engine and
transmission.
Lindholm says Enerflow Industries worked
closely with Caterpillar and Finning on both
the engine and transmission design. This is
the first time that a Caterpillar TH55 transmission has been applied in a fracturing application. Although the company had its choice
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of transmissions, Enerflow chose the TH55
for its ability to work in a larger horsepower
range. It was designed for Caterpillar 700 series off-highway haul trucks, and was reconfigured for use in a fracturing application.
“It has some excellent gear ratios,” says
Lindholm. “There are not many open holes
between the gear shifts, so you’ve got a wider
range of rpm available to you. We helped a
lot in the development of that transmission,
and developed a cold weather package that
we’ve incorporated into the engine.”
To ensure the engine could perform in this
application, Enerflow, Finning and Gasfrac participated in a “field follow” process directed by
Caterpillar to make appropriate adjustments
and install updates to eight pre-production
models working in actual commercial applications. That process is now complete, and
the TH55 transmission for fracturing packages
is in full production at Caterpillar.
The positive relationship that has evolved
between Enerflow and Finning has contributed to the overall success of the 2500-horsepower frac pump package. Success in the
oil and gas industry is largely achieved by
establishing relationships with equipment
suppliers who understand that everyone
is under pressure to deliver technologically
advanced equipment to meet customer
demand quickly.
For its part, Finning has oil and gas industry
pros with knowledge of how processes work
and how advances in equipment can help
keep customers on top of their game. It’s that
relationship with Finning and Cat that en-
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couraged Enerflow Industries to give serious
consideration to the possibilities and advantages of a frac pump package equipped with
Caterpillar’s new 2500-horsepower engine
and the accompanying TH55 transmission.
The Pussycat package includes Enerflow Industries’ patented and trademarked ECAMS control system. Williamson says the development and commercialization of ECAMS was
an important milestone in the company’s
five-year history. It sets the company apart
from its competitors, and has contributed
to the advancement of the whole well-servicing industry. Among the first products the
company launched, ECAMS is a user-friendly, PLC-based control system that allows the
operator to control and monitor a number
of processes during formation fracturing. An
added bonus is that well-servicing components can communicate with each other, leading to smoother operation.
Because of the networking ability of
ECAMS and Enerflow Industries’ large manufacturing capabilities, Lindholm says the
company is able to maintain fleet consistency for customers. With consistency, they can
also update equipment as improvements become available.
Enerf low Industries, Caterpillar and
Finning anticipated that a higher horsepower package would garner significant
industry interest, and it has. The first commercial Pussycat fracturing pump was sold
to Century Well Service in November 2007.
It has met all expectations, and Enerflow
Industries has a long list of orders to build
more 2500-horsepower frac pumps for other
customers. It has given the company an edge
and has provided Caterpillar and Finning
with an opportunity to establish a market
niche by supplying engines and transmissions for a higher horsepower frac pump.
Coupled with the ECA MS monitoring system, which can be adapted to any
language, Enerflow will market the package worldwide within its well-established
network. Alberta companies, along with
their counterparts in Texas, have been global leaders in technology transfer to the
oil and gas industry for the past 40 years,
according to Williamson. The Pussycat
package represents just one more example of
this leadership.
Both Lindholm and Williamson are
pleased with their company’s progress and
the advances they’ve been able to provide to
industry. “When we got Enerflow Industries
going, we certainly had visions of a company
that was going to grow to a pretty good size
and was going to support the industry,” says
Lindholm. “We do what we do best, and
we’ve been doing this our whole lives.”
Given their experience, Lindholm and
Williamson know that the oil and gas
sector is cyclical. Therefore, they believe
that it is crucial that Enerflow Industries is
constantly on the cutting edge to ensure
that their customers will always keep them
in mind for the latest and greatest in wellservicing technology no matter what the
market is like.
Snapshot of the Pussycat
Calgary-based Enerflow Industries is
pleased to announce the Pussycat fracturing system, featuring:
• Tier 2 technology
• A 2500-horsepower Cat 3512C engine
• 2400 hydraulic horsepower
• An environmental footprint lower than 2250-horsepower unit
• The first frac system to use a TH 55
Caterpillar transmission
• Reduced harmful emissions such as nitrogen oxides, non-methane organic
gases, sulphur and others
EQUIPMENT PROFILE
www.finning.ca
Cougar
Inlet Logging
Story by Katherine Fawcett
photography by Thea Stratton
Like its owner, this logging company is no run-of-the-mill organization
C
ougar Inlet Logging is no runof-the-mill logging company, and
its owner, Bob Lee, is no ordinary
lumberjack.
Most logging companies operate independently of the mills they sell to, but
Cougar Inlet is owned, in part, by its main
customer. While many logging companies
are downscaling, Cougar Inlet is maintaining a committed workforce, weathering the
economic downturn. And, while some companies are cutting corners and making do
with the equipment they have, Cougar just
purchased three new pieces of Cat equipment. Considering the difficult financial
times the entire industry is facing, Cougar
Inlet must be doing something right.
At the helm is Bob Lee, a cheerful father
of three in his mid-50s. He isn’t your typical fishin’ huntin’ beer-chuggin’ kind of guy.
Based in Campbell River on the east coast
of Vancouver Island, Lee is an avid crosscountry skier. His tan-coloured pickup truck
is filled with Nordic gear for much of the
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winter, as he hits the trails with his wife, or
cheers for his ski-racing daughter.
It’s Lee’s unconventionality, innovation
and approachability that led to Cougar
Inlet’s unique relationship with Mill and
Timber, the Surrey-based sawmill that holds
the licence for the land on which Cougar
Inlet works. “Bob is the kind of guy who
always looks on the bright side,” says Lee
Pond, Bob Lee’s counterpart and resource
manager at Mill and Timber. “He always has
a smile. He’s got a great sense of humour and
likes to kick around new ideas.”
Lee has worked in logging for 35 years.
Meticulous and neat, he can’t step over a
dirty rag or walk past a misplaced grease
tube without stopping to pick it up and put
it in its proper place. According to Pond,
the relationship between the two companies has been the best he’s ever experienced. Over the length of their 12-year partnership Cougar Inlet and Mill and Timber have
been consistently working towards a common goal: earning a profit from responsible
EQUIPMENT PROFILE
A turn-of-the-century lumberjack would
recognize little but the trees themselves in
the modern logging industry. The days of
hand-logging supported by bulls, horses
and steam machinery have given way to a
power-driven industry that relies on grapple yarders, self-loaders and helicopters.
Despite the changes, loggers of all generations have always enjoyed gathering to show
off their skills and celebrate their work in
friendly competitions.
North Island Logger Sports in Campbell
River, B.C. is Canada’s largest competitive
logging event. With a prize package of more than $40,000, it has included national and
international championships and been featured on TSN and OLN. Run in conjunction
with the Campbell River Salmon Festival,
it attracts up to 80 participants each summer for a fun weekend of axe throwing,
tree climbing, hand bucking, birling (log
rolling), power-saw cutting and more. It’s
a thrilling event for families and loggers in
this resource-based community.
The 2009 North Island Logger Sports will
take place in Nunns Creek Park, Campbell
River, August 7 to 9, 2009. For details,
please visit www.crsalmonfestival.com. logging. It’s a relationship based on trust and
transparency that benefits both parties.
“Right from the start, we wanted a different model where contractor and licensee work and live together,” explains Lee.
“We have a lot of common interests. It’s like
being married. If you have issues, you have
to deal with them or there’ll no longer be
a marriage.”
It also helps that Cougar Inlet operates a
dryland log sorting operation right alongside
the mill. Mill and Timber staff work closely
with the scalers and dryland sort crew to
ensure the correct logs end up in their own
mills to maximize profits. Although it is
a rare business model in today’s industry,
mill/logger partnership used to be common
back when licensees had their own logging
Fun with an axe
crews, says Lee. “Not anymore,” he says.
So what makes this relationship work so
well? “The people,” answers Pond without
hesitation. “We both want to make it work.
Bob Lee is honest and hardworking. He motivates his crew to work with us. He understands forestry, planning issues, he knows
the lumber markets and he knows that when
you talk about it you’re not just blowing
smoke up his ass.”
Cougar Inlet does well, but also pumps
substantial income into the community. Last
year, the company harvested approximately
200,000 cubic metres of primarily oldgrowth red cedar, and built approximately
40 kilometres of logging road. It paid in excess of $6 million in stumpage and royalties
to the provincial government, approximately $6 million in direct payroll, indirectly
supporting dozens of suppliers and small
businesses on Vancouver Island.
With a crew of as many as 70 people from
across the Island and B.C.’s Lower Mainland,
Cougar Inlet could be considered a mediumwww.finning.ca
sized logging company. Working in rotations
of 14 days on, seven days off, the crew lives
in logging camps or on barges on the ocean,
which can hold as many as 30 employees.
Lee splits his time between his desk at the office in Campbell River and the field. “I enjoy
getting out and making the rounds in camp
and staying in touch with the crew,” he says.
“It’s too easy to become immersed in the office end of the business and lose touch with
what is really important.”
The crew is currently working in Seymour
Inlet, a remote area on the B.C. coast that
is accessible only by boat or aircraft. Three
quarters of its output is old growth red cedar,
which Mill and Timber manufactures and
exports, mostly to the U.S. for fencing, decking and siding. The remainder is hemlock
and yellow cedar. It’s sold on the open market to a variety of customers.
It’s not easy work. Loggers must be as effi-
cient as possible and adapt to an everchanging environment. Companies need
highly skilled operators in top-of-the
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line, well-maintained machines that have
minimal downtime. Last February, Cougar
Inlet Logging purchased a new Cat 966H
with a log grapple for use in its dryland sort
area, known as the Woods Lagoon. In May,
Lee added two new 330Ds for road building
work. These machines work in tandem with
the company’s 1998 320 excavator, 1979
14G grader and three articulated rock trucks.
There are approximately 25 machines in
its f leet, including other road builders,
hoe drills, off-highway log trucks, yarders
and log loaders. With two separate road-
building crews working at all times, none of
the equipment sits idle.
There are several reasons the company
chose yellow iron for its three new machines.
Service was top of the list. “We like Finning’s
parts and service,” says Lee.
“In the end it’s been working out really
well.” Although some of Lee’s operators have
had to get used to the cabs, they all love the
fact that the machines are quieter and very
comfortable.
Lee says the company strategy for 2009
is to stay the same size and maintain good
equipment and people “so we can meet our
partner’s demands.” Cougar Inlet will soon
be expanding its ability to work in remote
locations by building two new barges to
accommodate the crew. “We want to make
sure we’re in a strong position,” he says. “Our
focus and strength is road-building, operating in remote areas and being able to move
quickly from site to site.”
In the face of opposition to logging, Lee
says his detractors “don’t understand the industry” and what a wonderful renewable
resource the forest is for all British Columbians to benefit from. As licence holder, Mill
and Timber is responsible for reforesting all
logged areas and ensuring a “free to grow”
forest for generations to come.
Whether he’s skiing between them or
harvesting them for the good of the com-
munit y, Lee is intimately acquainted
with the trees of Vancouver Island and it’s
clear timber is his passion.“Whether it’s
providing direct employment, supporting
small business and government or simply
providing a natural playground for all to
enjoy,” he says.
Wood chips
Think you know it all? Here are 10 facts
about the B.C. forest industry:
• 40 million hectares of British
Columbia’s total land base of 60 million
hectares is covered in forest.
• 95% of B.C.’s land base is publicly
owned. The provincial government allocates the right to log Crown land through
the sale of stumpage feed and a regulated
annual allowable cut.
• British Columbia harvests less than 1%
of its forests each year.
• Canada has more than 15% of the
world’s entire softwood forest stock.
About half of the softwood produced in
Canada comes from B.C.
• Forest products accounted for 39% of
the total value of exports in B.C. in 2005,
down from around 60% 20 years ago.
• The forestry industry currently employs
about 1% of B.C.’s workers, half what it
employed at the beginning of the 1990s.
• Logging and forestry contributes approximately 3% of the province’s GDP.
• The average hourly wage in the logging industry is $23.60, more than 20%
higher than the average for all industries
in B.C.
• Each year, about 200 million seedlings
are planted to reforest areas after logging,
wildfire and insect infestations.
Source: B.C. Forestry Innovation Investment, and
B.C. Provincial Government’s: “A Guide to the
B.C. Economy and Labour Market.”
Story by rick overwater
illustration by heff o’reilley
Safety First
Your company’s safety program isn’t effective unless you audit
and tweak it as necessary
The Good
Kind of Audit
It was in the middle of a routine audit of one
company’s safety process that Jon Pel identified a fundamental flaw that could easily
have resulted in injury or death.
“They had an evacuation drill that
took nine minutes, which seemed a lit-
tle long,” says Pel, a B.C.-based regional environmental health and safety manager
for Finning (Canada). He asked a few questions and discovered that once the building was evacuated, “sweepers” were being
sent back in to make sure nobody was left
behind. “Nobody ever goes back into the
building,” says Pel. “Never, ever. That’s how
people die.”
It was a simple mistake in an otherwise
well-run procedure. Fortunately, it was also
easily corrected by communicating new policies. It was also evidence that internal safety
audits – actually studying and documenting
a company’s safety practices – are a crucial
final step.
“If you’re not measuring things you have
no idea if you’re managing them properly,”
says Pel. He adds that safety audits are standard in most industries. That’s the case for
Cougar Inlet Logging, a “stump to dump”
logging company based in Campbell River,
B.C., which operates under the B.C. Forest
Safety Council’s guidelines.
A complete job for this company involves
flying into a job site, generally a bay or inlet
on the B.C. coast, and doing everything from
felling trees to dragging them down to the
water. In the course of a year, Cougar Inlet
Logging handles more than 200,000 cubic
metres of timber and builds more than 40
kilometres of roads, using equipment such
as excavators, chainsaws, log loaders, grapplers and more. Safety is a big concern.
Glenda Inrig is the operations administrator and internal safety program auditor
for Cougar Inlet. “We are definitely a highrisk industry,” she says. In 2005, there were
43 fatalities in the logging industry. “B.C.
Forest Safety Council and the major companies got together and said ‘we need to change
this.’ We jumped on board,” says Inrig.
Establishing an effective auditing process
is daunting, but pays dividends. Fortunately
Cougar Inlet already had an effective safety
system in operation. The common initial resistance from employees to filling out daily
maintenance inspection reports, conducting
initial onsite safety meetings, documenting
monthly equipment checks and other similar reporting tasks was behind them. “All of
our people have bought into this program
and it works,” says Inrig.
Audits can catch occasional missed maintenance recommendations and newly identified safety hazards. For Cougar Inlet, the first
step was to hire an external auditor to give
the company a BASE audit (Basic Audit and
Safety Evaluation), someone to go over their
program top to bottom. It was an exhaustive
week-long process that had the auditor inspecting the shop and field work, studying
reams of documentation, and interviewing
employees. “Even your newest employee has
to have answers for the auditor,” says Inrig.
“You can say your company does something
safety-wise, but does the worker
know that?” Cougar Inlet fared well on
its first audit and the next step
was to develop an internal auditor position, a responsibility that fell to Inrig. She took
an auditor training course,
which she describes as “a lot of
homework and a lot of information in a short amount of
time.” One year later, Inrig conducted her first internal audit,
earning kudos from the B.C.
Forest Safety Council. Next
year they’ll do it again, she says.
“Then, the third year, an external auditor comes back in to
verify everything.”
The process has brought
about good results for both
Inrig and Pel. Inrig cites the discovery of design flaws in an escape hatch in new machinery that made the door handles difficult to
use. Thanks to the auditing process, the company obtained and retrofitted new handles.
Pel discovered that reports of repairs needed
on one outlet’s forklift mast chains (which
are responsible for carrying massive amounts
of weight) hadn’t been followed. Catching
seemingly small oversights tightens a safety
program to accomplish every company’s ultimate goal: zero injuries in a given year.
“This also guides future action and helps
you apply your safety budgets and resources
properly,” says Pel. “And it needs to be ongoing. If you stop, you go back.”
www.finning.ca
s p e c i a l r e p o rt
WHERE COAL IS KING
Tumbler Ridge, with its black seams of coal, is golden for two companies –
Western Canadian Coal and Peace River Coal. Backed by an insatiable demand from
China and India for the mineral, Western and Peace are together producing more than
six million tonnes annually. Now Tumbler Ridge is watching its formerly depressed real
estate prices climb upwards.
Perry Creek, or “Wolverine” as the locals call it, is one of three northeastern B.C.
mines proving to be a windfall for Western Canadian. Initial feasibility studies assessed
its reserves at 17 million tonnes. A more recent study reveals as much as 27.7 tonnes
of coal. The townsfolk figure this windfall will give them the time needed to diversify
the economy.
Tomorrow’s Town
24
Tumbler Ridge has seen its fortunes wax and wane with the
price of coal. The town’s looking bullish these days as the
population swells and real estate values soar.
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Coal Power
26
Western Canadian Coal couldn’t be happier – or busier.
Prior to the Perry Creek Mine opening, Western signed a
$32.6 million deal with Finning for 18 new pieces of Cat
equipment. That was just the beginning .
WHERE COAL IS KING
Tomorrow’s
Town
Story by Robin Brunet
Tumbler Ridge grew and shrank with
coal prices. Things are good again,
and this time the town aims to stay
in the black
T
umbler Ridge’s postal code is VOC 2W0 or, as locals put
it, “Valley Of Coal To Work Over.” That moniker was created 27 years ago, shortly after Tumbler Ridge was built as a
home base for workers at the Quintette and Bullmoose coal
mines, and it almost became the town’s epitaph in 2000, when Teck
Corporation closed both mines due to high production costs and declining world coal prices. With no other industry to rely upon for their
livelihood, many locals packed their bags and Tumbler Ridge’s 5,000strong population plummeted to 1,900.
What a difference a revitalized world market makes. Tumbler Ridge
is the Valley of Coal again now that two companies – Western Canadian Coal and Peace River Coal – are working over with a vengeance.
Backed by a seemingly insatiable demand for the mineral from China
and India, Western and Peace combined are producing more than six
million tonnes of metallurgical coal annually from various mines in
the vicinity. Tumbler Ridge’s population has swelled beyond 3,000,
and real estate values are soaring.
That makes people like Marie Therriault, manager of Tumbler
Ridge’s Chamber of Commerce, smile. “We almost became a ghost
town eight years ago,” she says. “Beautiful split-level homes that had
been abandoned in the exodus sold for as little as $23,000. We were
too remote to attract other industries, and the people who remained
here toughed it out. But now there’s a real sense of hope about our
future. The general sentiment is we’ve got five to 10 years of breathing
room, during which time we may be able to become a self-sustaining
community.”
Renewed coal production has even proven stable enough for
Finning to establish a small shop in town, which Bob Bays, general
manager for Western’s Wolverine Mine, describes as “a satellite facility for other Finning outlets and certainly convenient for us, especially
considering our operation runs 24/7, 365 days a year.”
Located 125 km southwest of Mile Zero of the Alaska Highway,
the town was incorporated in 1981 as part of the British Columbia
Resources Investment Corporation’s Northeast Coal project. A consortium of Japanese steel mills had agreed to buy 100 million tonnes
of coal for US$7.5 billion from Teck and Denison Mines Inc. over a
15-year period, and analysts believed Tumbler Ridge would grow to
a 10,000 person-strong community. They also anticipated prosperity
well beyond serving the Japanese market, since no less than 15 major
coal deposits had been discovered in the vicinity during the 1950s.
The provincial government built two highway connectors into the
region and supplied the community with power and rail lines, water,
sewage and other infrastructure. Buildings were erected in 1982 as the
mines reached full production and for a brief while the community assumed the aura of a quaint and cozy boom town tucked into the foothills of the Rockies. But, in 1984, shortly after amenities were expanded
to include a secondary school and recreation centre, the good times
ended: World coal prices began dropping and the Japanese requested
that Teck and Denison lower its prices accordingly – a request that was
supported by the Supreme Court of Canada, six years later. Denison
responded by slashing production and applying for court protection
from creditors, a move that allowed Teck to acquire its Quintette mine.
Coal prices continued to drop throughout the 1990s, and even
though new contracts with the Japanese were signed in 1997, the
Northeast Coal project ultimately incurred a net loss of $2.8 billion.
The exodus from Tumbler Ridge – as well as the subsequent grab of
over 1,000 ultra-cheap homes by outside investors – made headlines
all over Canada.
It’s hardly news that the resurgence in coal prices is driving many
regional economies, besides that of Tumbler Ridge. B.C. Mining
www.finning.ca
WHERE COAL IS KING
Association president and CEO
Pierre Gratton describes 2008
as a year in which “companies
continued to invest for the long
term.” Even in 2007, when coal
hovered at a mere US$80 per
tonne compared to US$138 per
tonne during the first quarter of
this year, the B.C. industry still
reported a net income of $1.2
billion along with 24 mining
projects under environmental
review or in the approval stages.
But the prevailing question
from anyone who suffered
through the lean years of the
1990s is this: What will prevent
the current boom from becoming a bust? The answer is two-fold: China and India. High quality
metallurgical coal, which B.C. has in abundance, is required to make
steel; worldwide demand for steel is stronger than ever, and China
is by far driving steel production growth the most, with 500 million
tonnes emerging from its mills annually. India comes in second with
50 million tonnes annually, an amount analysts believe could easily
triple within a decade.
These and other markets compelled Western Canadian Coal to
open the Dillon mine in 2003 (using the infrastructure from the Bullmoose mine) and then commence production at the Wolverine and
Hermann mines between the former Bullmoose and Quintette plants.
Natural gas development also played a role in this community’s
remarkable recovery and, by 2005, the town’s population had jumped
to 3,000, and houses were selling for $80,000 and higher.
Today, denizens of Tumbler Ridge are cautiously optimistic about
the town’s future. “Construction on a new retail centre is underway in
our downtown area, the first time in years such a development has occurred, plus we’re in the process of welcoming our first chain business
to the community,” says Therriault. “It’s a Subway sandwich shop.”
Although it’s estimated that the mines will operate for at least 15
years, locals prefer to allow themselves up to a decade of space in which
they hope to develop revenue streams other than resource extraction.
Some employment has already been generated in tourism, thanks to
attractions from dinosaur fossil discoveries, outdoor recreation and
nearby provincial parks. “We hope to bolster tourism further,” says
Therriault, saying that investors have expressed an interest in opening
an eco-lodge in the vicinity.
Meanwhile, Tumbler Ridge is in the enviable position of examining
how to expand its residential and amenities infrastructure in anticipation of more mining activity in the near future.
“Teck Corporation was a wonderful support to our community via
its fundraising and charity work, and Western and Peace, despite their
busy schedules, are stepping up to the plate to fulfil local needs, including fundraising for a new daycare centre – which Finning has also lent
support to,” says Therriault. The town needs other facilities, such as a seniors’ drop-in centre, and
there’s more infrastructure work to be done. “But at least we’re on the
road to recovery,” Therriault says. “The bottom line is that Tumbler
Ridge is a fantastic place to live and visit. We want to make it a permanent B.C. destination.” Old is new again
In addition to its many attributes, such as great hiking, boating, fishing,
scenery and more, Tumbler Ridge has a relatively new attraction – or is
it an old one? Anyway, tourists and residents can now add dinosaurs to
their list of things to do.
Eight years ago, two boys from Tumbler Ridge, Mark Turner and
Daniel Helm, were tubing on a nearby creek. The pair dumped in the
water and wound up walking back to their starting point. Turns out they
weren’t the first to hoof it along that particular stretch.
Pretty much any boy under 12 could recognize a set of dinosaur footprints embedded in rock, and Mark and Dan were no different. It took
them a while to convince the right people to check the site out. Eventually
University of Alberta specialist Rich McCrea confirmed that find and
others. The area has also become a trove of Cretaceous Age fossils.
www.finning.ca
WHERE COAL IS KING
B
ob Bays’ soothing southern drawl may seem
out of place in the northeast B.C. town of
Tumbler Ridge, but the U.S. mining veteran is right
at home in temperatures that can drop to -40˚C,
at a work site where production is around the clock, 365 days
a year.
Having worked in mines across North America for almost
three decades, Bays is used to extreme weather. But that only
partly explains his ease in this relatively remote locale.
As general manager of the nearby Perry Creek mine
(more commonly referred to by locals as the Wolverine mine
because it’s located in the Wolverine Valley), he places his
faith in a large fleet of Caterpillar equipment and its operators
to keep things running smoothly. “We try to avoid downtime
at all costs, and we succeed because Caterpillar is a proven
leader in durable mining equipment,” he says. “That’s always
been the case in the mines I’ve worked for. Plus, Finning’s
backup service is by far and away the standard that competitors have a tough time living up to.”
The affable Bays tends to downplay the complexity of
Perry Creek, which is one of three northeastern B.C. mines
owned by Western Canadian Coal. “This is a surface operation in which we blast rock and move the debris away
to stable areas in order to expose the coal seams,” he says.
Coal
Power
Never mind other fossil
fuels. Coal in B.C. is
burning brighter, and more
efficiently, than ever
Story by Robin Brunet
www.finning.ca
WHERE COAL IS KING
“So, lots of blasting and lots of hauling. Our ratio of blasting rock to
extracting coal is about 10 to one, which is perfectly acceptable for
high-quality metallurgical coal given the current world prices of the
mineral. But, nonetheless, because of the expense associated with
operating equipment and transporting goods these days, we try to be
as efficient as possible. The people at Finning are well aware of this
and, since we opened for business two years ago, they have gone the
extra mile in helping us achieve our goals.”
Perry Creek is proving to be a windfall for Western: It contributes to
the company’s overall annual output of 3.5 million tonnes of metallurgical coal. Initial feasibility studies in 2003 assessed Perry Creek’s
total reserves at 17 million tonnes, which was more than enough for
Western to kick-start site clearing and construction at Tumbler Ridge
– and for the small town’s depressed real estate prices to begin their
dramatic climb. But a more recent study reveals that the mine actually has 27.7 tonnes of clean coal product, meaning Western will be
a driving force in Tumbler Ridge’s economy for a long time to come.
“We’ve been told that Western will have a presence in our community for about 10 years,” says Marie Therriault, manager of the Tumbler
Ridge Chamber of Commerce.
Shortly after production at Perry Creek commenced in October
2006, the first shipments of Wolverine coal to India and Europe were
transported from Prince Rupert’s Ridley Terminals. While Western’s
highly trained and carefully co-ordinated work crews can take much
credit for the smooth function of Perry Creek, Caterpillar and Finning
(Canada) have also played an integral role in its success. Prior to the
mine’s opening, Western signed a $32.6 million deal with Finning for
18 new pieces of Cat equipment, and its confidence in Perry Creek as
well as its relationship with Finning was such that it signed for another
$8 million worth of Cat machines soon after.
For its part, Finning added a new mining account manager
specifically for the town, one of two managers that would be permanently stationed in the community. It also established a physical presence downtown. “They run a small shop that can make or replace
hoses for our machines,” says Bays. “It’s also a handy satellite facility
for us. We use it to send component parts that need replacing to the
appropriate Finning vendors.”
Because Perry Creek is a non-stop operation, on-site mechanics are
a priority: the mine employs between four and six of them per shift.
“They’re contracted by Finning and ready to solve any unforeseen
problems,” says Bays. “We’ve also equipped ourselves with maintenance kits for our fuel and air systems, so we’re pretty self-contained.”
Few problems have occurred in the two short years Perry Creek has
been producing coal. The mine has an inventory of 27 trucks, seven
primary loading machines, two large hydraulic front shovels and two
backhoes. Western’s multimillion-dollar purchase from Finning consisted of five Cat 789C haul trucks (190-ton capacity), five Cat 785C haul trucks (150-ton capacity), four Cat D10T tractors, a Cat 16H
motor grader, a Cat 992 wheel loader, a Cat 834H wheel dozer and a
Cat 385 excavator, with some of this equipment used for preproduction stripping as well as mining.
“The 992 is a replacement piece for our excavators, and we maintain a minimum of 23 trucks and six excavators on site, all of them
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WHERE COAL IS KING
running around the clock,” says Bays. “Except for fuelling and safety
inspections, these machines are loading and transporting rock without ever being shut off. And so far we haven’t suffered any mishaps.”
Not even when the temperature drops to -40˚C, which compromises
the structural integrity of any equipment, says Bays. “The Cats are so
reliable in severe weather that we can focus instead on the well-being of
our crews.”
Because Western’s inventory also includes non-Cat machines, Bays
prefers not to dwell on the individual merits of one brand over the
other. But he does mention Cat’s outstanding use of advanced technology such as that applied to the D10T, whose Automated Blade Assist
and optional Computer-Aided Earthmoving Systems allow the operator to do more work in less time by maximizing the machine’s capabilities and power. Additionally, ACERT technology reduces exhaust
emissions on the D10T’s 646-horsepower C27 engine to the point
where it exceeds the most stringent government regulations.
With its resources now fully deployed, the Perry Creek mine produced 683,000 tonnes of run-of-mine coal in the third quarter of
2008 and processed roughly the same amount via the Wolverine
plant – almost half a million tonnes more coal than the company
produced during the second quarter. Western is also rapidly paying
back debt on an overall mine and plant development expenditure of
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WHERE COAL IS KING
About coal
$245 million. Plus, a recently implemented productivity improvement
plan has resulted in improved operations and lower costs.
Western president and CEO John Hogg points out that as a northeast B.C. coal producer with underutilized rail and port capacity, his
firm is well-positioned to take advantage of anticipated coal prices next
year, which may be as much as 100 per cent higher than current coal
year contracts. (Recent coking sales have exceeded $275 per tonne.)
Production is expected to ramp up to three million tonnes annually,
making Western one of the largest producers of metallurgical coal in
Western Canada.
Bays is looking forward to the future and a continued positive relationship with Finning. “They have a good team of people who provide
great service,” he says. “Occasionally they get an earful from us, but they
always take it well and always take measures to improve themselves.
We’re very satisfied with the way things are working out.” • Coal is the planet’s most abundant fossil fuel.
• Some of coal’s most common uses include electricity generation,
steel and cement manufacture, and industrial process heating.
• Coal provides more than 23% of global primary energy needs. It
generates nearly 40% of the world’s electricity.
• Almost 70% of total global steel production is dependent on
coal.
• There are four main types of coal and all are found in Canada:
anthracite, bituminous, sub-bituminous and lignite.
• Every year, Canada exports about 28 million tonnes of coal globally to a value of about $2 billion.
• The international trade in coal has expanded faster over the past
decade than trade in any other commodity.
• Electricity generation from coal is becoming increasingly efficient.
It’s eight times more so than at the turn of the last century.
• Coal is the largest commodity carried by Canadian railways.
• Canada ranks 10th in the world in total coal reserves.
Source: The Coal Association of Canada, www.coal.ca
www.finning.ca
COMPANY PROFILE: Stobbe Excavating
READY TO WORK: Jason Stobbe may be young,
but he already has years of excavation experience,
and the awards to go with it
www.finning.ca
A young Kamloops contractor is
making his mark, using yellow iron and
Finning to the home team advantage
A
s a young boy growing up in sunny
Kamloops, B.C., Jason Stobbe practically
lived outside. In the backyard of his family’s
home, he’d spend hours in the sandbox, fashioning roads and lakes for his Tonka dump
trucks. Lots of young boys play with toy
vehicles, but Stobbe came by his fascination
honestly. His dad, Dave Stobbe, owned a construction company and would often take his
young son to the jobsite.
“I always admired my dad as a kid. He had
a single-axle dump truck and a skid steer,”
Stobbe says. “Every now and then, he’d take
me for rides in the dump truck and I loved it.”
As Jason Stobbe grew, he spent more time
with his dad at work, observing how his dad
used the equipment and handled the jobs.
“He’d always give me opportunities to learn,”
he says.
Often, this meant actually running equipment himself, the kind of hands-on learning
that Stobbe, like most talented operators, has
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Story by Caitlin Crawshaw
photography by rick tolhurst
always loved. “I’m not the sort of person who
can read a textbook and figure it out. I have
to do it.”
After graduating from high school in
1992, Stobbe did what many young people
do – he grabbed a backpack and toured the
world. His parents met up with Stobbe and
his high school pal in New Zealand. One day,
quite out of the blue, his father asked him if
he’d like to use some of his construction
equipment – namely the skid steer and dump
truck – and try his hand at finding and organizing his own jobs. There was no question in
his mind that this would be a wonderful opportunity. “I wasn’t expecting it,” Stobbe says,
“but I wanted it.”
As soon as he returned from his travels, he
hit the ground running. He took out an ad in
the newspaper and in no time he’d lined up
a few projects. For the first year and a half, he
did a few jobs a week, which kept him busy
enough to keep going.
“Anything that someone wanted me to do,
I’d do it. I was always very confident I could
get the job done, because I had a vision in my
head,” Stobbe explains. Before the first day of
the job, Stobbe would mull over the details
as he lay in bed at night or even visit the site
ahead of time to plan things out.
Not surprisingly, it didn’t take long for
Stobbe to develop a reputation for being thorough and dependable, and things started
to get busy. In 2004, he officially formed his
company – Stobbe Excavating – which specializes in residential excavation, such as
basement digging and backfilling. But the
company has also been moving towards utility work, such as preparing the ground for infrastructure in new housing developments.
With the business growing, Stobbe realized he needed to increase his fleet. He
decided to purchase some equipment from his
dad, who was heading into semi-retirement.
Though he had picked up a 1989 Cat
COMPANY PROFILE: Stobbe Excavating
EL200 excavator in a private sale, he had no
special interest in Caterpillar equipment until
meeting a Finning sales associate named
James Morton, who was about the same age
as Stobbe. “There was something
about James I really liked. He introduced me to Caterpillar equipment and spent a lot of time with
me,” he says.
But it took some time for
Morton to make the sale. While
Stobbe’s business was young, as
was Stobbe himself, he didn’t want
to invest in equipment that was
solely suitable for small jobs. He
knew that if he set his sights on
bigger jobs, and bought the equipment he’d need for bigger opportunities, Stobbe Excavating would rise to the
top. “James said I was one of his toughest sales
because he wanted to sell me a mini, thinking
that I’d be a small contractor.”
In the end, Stobbe purchased a used Cat
320 CLU. “It was a landmark machine,”
Stobbe says. The versatile excavator has great
visibility and the capacity to handle significant loads. It also goes where comparable excavators fear to tread. “It’s a big machine, but it
can get into some tight places.”
Another of Stobbe’s favourites is the Cat
314, which has a great levelling blade and
a hoe pac to compact the ground down. “It’s
a good money-generator, but they all are,”
says Stobbe.
He admits it’s just about impossible
to name a favourite. “If you have the right
machine for the right job, it makes it great to
run them all.” In fact, since purchasing his first
piece of Caterpillar machinery, Stobbe has
replaced all of his equipment with yellow iron. “I wanted to get the biggest machines into
the tightest places,” says Stobbe. “There’s a lot
of residential construction where you can’t fit
a lot of big equipment in there. But now, with
Cat having tight tail-swing machines, you can
have bigger machines in smaller areas.” In all, Stobbe has five excavators, one skid
steer and two dump trucks. Stobbe’s business
keeps the equipment busy all the time.
In the long term, Caterpillar products
make better business sense than their competitors, says Stobbe. “I wanted re-sale value,
BUCKETS OF WORK: Stobbe employee Ed Shaw directs
some fine bucket work by operator Jeff Hoeppner on a
residential basement excavation in Kamloops
I wanted dealership support and I wanted to
be set apart.”
Stobbe points out that Cat vehicles are
a common sight on the jobsites of large
construction companies. While Stobbe
Excavating is known for its Caterpillar equipment, his machines also stand out among
Cats. There’s no mistaking a Stobbe machine. “Little kids will say, ‘Yours are the Hot
Wheels excavators with the flames on them!’”
Stobbe says with a laugh. “I’ve tried to set myself apart that way.” From the skid steers to the
largest excavators, all of Stobbe’s equipment
is adorned with flame decals. The unusual
branding started when he decided to sell his
pride and joy, a 2002 limited edition Camaro,
to buy a dump truck. “I still wanted a racecar
image, I wanted the truck to at least look fast.”
It must have been a wise decision: Stobbe took
his wife on their first date in that dump truck.
“To the dump, of all places,” Stobbe laughs.
Of course Stobbe is sold on Cat’s reliability, but Finning’s service group has ensured
that when a piece of equipment has required
maintenance, the process is quick and painless. Finning reps Keith Barron and Ken
Serink look after Stobbe. “And product support treats me like I’m one of the team. They
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come out to my site sometimes and see how
the equipment works to make sure there’s no
problems,” says Stobbe. “It’s really good to be
part of the team and not be blown off just because I’m a younger entrepreneur.”
Stobbe uses many of Finning’s special
services to minimize downtime and keep his
operations running smoothly. Finning’s custom track services helps Stobbe get the most
life out of his undercarriage, the most expensive part of excavator maintenance. A product
support rep uses special diagnostic equipment to measure the undercarriage for wear,
determining which parts to replace and when.
“This helps achieve maximum performance,
long life and the lowest cost per hour,” explains Finning rep Keith Barron.
Stobbe also subscribes to the Preventive Maintenance program. Periodically, a
Finning crew visits to do oil and filter changes
and diagnostic checks. “They’ll come at 4 or 5
o’clock in the evening and get the whole thing
done, so I don’t lose time during the day,”
he says.
In addition to these special services, Stobbe makes use of Finning insurance, Caterpillar
financing and Finning’s Exchange program,
whereby he can exchange a worn compo-
go wrong, “you get really good service with
Finning,” he says.
There’s no question that having reliable equipment is important given the tight
timelines and careful planning required by
Stobbe’s business. These days, he manages
seven operators and always has to be looking ahead to the next best thing, while still
ensuring the job of the moment is done right.
Stobbe is always scanning the community for
new opportunities. Even when he’s on vacation with his wife, stepson and 10-month-old
baby, Stobbe can’t resist checking out the construction sites he passes. “My wife tells me to
turn off – but I can’t. It’s a part of me now.”
While his enthusiasm for his work may
not be an asset on vacation, it recently earned
Stobbe Excavating the Best Subtrade Award
from the Canadian Homebuilders Association. But Stobbe takes this with a grain of salt.
“I’m a proud person, but I don’t think shelf
ornaments make a person,” he says. “I’m still
self-motivated. If you come to my office, you
don’t have to see my collection. You can see
[I’m competent] by talking to me.”
But he admits that it is nice being recognized by peers, though he attributes the
award primarily to his staff. “They’re
the backbone of my business,” he says
– as well as his team at Finning. “They
give me outstanding support, and if
you have an award-wining company
like that, and a great team of guys who
work for you, you can’t go wrong. And
having great equipment that’s specifically designed to meet your needs
– Finning’s really helped me out.”
Running his business will always
keep Stobbe busy – fortunately, it’s
more like play than work, he says. It’s
a passion he’s eager to pass on to his
sons. Now and then, he brings baby
Jacob to the jobsite. “Every once and
a while, he sits on my knee and pretends to drive [the excavator],” says
Stobbe. Always eager, 10-year-old
Ethan has helped in landscaping the
family’s front yard.
“It’s every father’s dream to have
his kids follow in his footsteps,” says
THE GANG’S ALL HERE: Meet the family: (L-R)
Stobbe. “But it all depends on them.
Jacob Stobbe, Jason Stobbe, Chris Stobbe, Jeff Hoeppner,
It’s not about me.”
Marc Harrie, Ed Shaw, Rudy Loewen, Larry Stickney, Adam Lund
www.finning.ca
nent towards a remanufactured one. (It’s an
Edmonton-based service offering parts that
are rebuilt according to Cat specifications).
Equipment rarely goes down, but when it
does, Stobbe has Finning deal with the mechanical issue. After one bad experience with
a slow mechanic who kept another type of excavator in his shop for three weeks, Stobbe has
chosen to spend a bit more upfront in order to
save money in the long run.
Like every contractor, Stobbe knows that
good maintenance is part of a sound business
plan. “I try to keep problems from happening.
If we notice something, then [Finning] comes
out,” he says. One time, Finning rep Ken
Serink came to the jobsite for an hour just to
watch the equipment run on a side-hill. “We’d
had track issues, and Ken could explain it better than we could to the mechanic.”
One of Stobbe’s longtime staffers, Jeff
Hoeppner, has operated all kinds of construction equipment. “You name it,” he says. “I’ve
run it.” Cat products and Finning support
keeps Hoeppner doing his job. “[Cat] just
works really well. They don’t have a lot of little stupid things going wrong.” If things do
Stobbe Excavating recently
won an award from the
Canadian Homebuilders
Association
FIELD TEST
Mawps Up
Story by Noel Lacadie
An advanced wear plate system is cleaning up downtime for Finning
customers, keeping machines in the field
D
ave Zesko knows the ins and outs
of ground engaging tools (GET)
probably better than anyone on the
planet. As Finning’s GET ambassador, he has the privilege of introducing customers to the value of sacrificial bits of steel
that protect buckets, blades and truck boxes.
“I like the opportunity to understand our
customers’ GET challenges and resolve issues,” Zesko says, noting that a strong focus
on the often overlooked subject of GET can
dramatically improve productivity and reduce costs.
And just in time for these more challenging economic times, Finning’s GET champion has a new-cost and time-saving tool to
offer – Caterpillar’s new Mechanically Attached Wear Plate System, or MAWPS.
Like other GET products, MAWPS protects work tools from severe impact or being
GET MAWPS: The new MAWPS GET system is worth
substantial savings to us,” says Lafarge’s Gary Saumer.
“It was three times the price to do it the other way.”
damaged when working in abrasive environments. Think of them as knee pads for
machines – offering protection for bucket
bottoms and sides, dozer push arms, hydraulic excavator ski runners and sides, and
crusher hoppers. But MAWPS is dramatically lighter than other protection systems or
techniques, such as weld-on wear plates, and
is far less labour intensive to install.
“The process of installing traditional
weld-on wear plates typically takes one of
our customers two days,” says Zesko. “And
because other systems need to be replaced
three or four times a year, that adds up to a
lot of unnecessary downtime.”
Not so MAWPS. Instead of hammering and welding protective plates on, the
MAWPS system uses a compression retainer
that enables replaceable plates to be changed
out with the time-honoured use of a flat bed
screwdriver, reducing both downtime and
cursing-a-blue-streak time.
MAWPS’ plates are also about onehalf to two-thirds the weight of traditional
arrangements so they won’t significantly
increase a vehicle’s weight, a fact that can
help reduce fuel consumption, tire wear and
prevent engine damage. They are also versatile; when one side of the plates is worn, they
can be turned for second use. Wear indicators tell operators when the plates should be
replaced.
You can’t beat MAWPS with a stick, says
Gary Saumer, crusher superintendent for Lafarge, which operates an open aggregates pit
near Edmonton. Saumer has been installing
wear protection plates on Cats for 28 years.
“I look after all the crushing, the loaders,
Cats, hoes and back hoes,” he explains. “All
winter, summer, spring and fall.” Saumer
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invested in his first MAWPS system in the
spring of 2008. He quickly discovered it
makes it a lot easier to protect the machines,
and, he adds, “The plates don’t wear out near
as fast.”
Saumer was skeptical of the product at
first. But he wanted to protect his fleet of
988H loaders, which load hoppers and conveyor systems, and keep his 20 employees
Plates that are worn out can be replaced
during scheduled preventive maintenance,
further decreasing downtime.
The plates are made out of Cat-formulated through-hardened DH-2 steel and fitted to a permanent skeletal base plate that
is made from slightly softer steel so it can be
welded into place. The wear plate entirely
covers the base plate and the underside of
each is equipped with little
recessed pockets that have
been cast into the four corners of the plate to serve as
indicators of when they
need to be changed. It only
takes about two minutes to remove and replace a worn wear plate with a screwdriver.
Through-hardening is a process in which
manufacturers use heat to change the molecular structure of metal. It becomes extremely resistant to abrasion and extends
wear life.
“You bet it can take a beating,” says
Zesko. “MAWPS has a rating of 500 Brinell.”
Feedback has been positive. Lafarge conducted a field study to chart the increase in
life span of MAWPS and found the plates
were achieving an average of more than
500 extra hours of machine use, about double that of ordinary plates. MAWPS reduces
downtime, which is critical to customers
and the bottom line.
“We’ve done one so far this year; that
was the trial,” says Saumer. “But as the others wear out, we’re going to change them, get
them on our back hoes and loaders as the
old protection on them wears off. It’s worth
the substantial savings to us. It was three
times the price to do it the other way.” MAWPS wear plates are installed
with the time-honoured use of a
simple flat bed screwdriver.
focused and working to get the job done.
Finning crews came to the worksite and installed the system for him on a 988H Cat
loader in about six hours. His skepticism entirely disappeared, he says, when he found
the MAWPS plates were good for about
1,400 working hours before they even had to
think of replacing them.
“Normally we would have to change
them every 700 to 800 hours. It means substantial savings in a year’s time.”
Saumer also appreciates Finning’s ongoing support. “As far as the Finning team
goes, Dave and his guys have been really
good. There were no difficulties, but they
came out and checked with me at least once
a month to see how it was going.”
M AW PS skeleta l desig n a lso provides long-term wear protection for just
about any truck box, including duck tails.
The wear plate traps material in and between
the plates, which is an extra bonus because
the materials rub against each other, not
the machines.
www.finning.ca
meeting the challenge
photography by thea stratton
A New Day is
Spawning
MAKING WAY: Mike Gage, right, chairman of the
Campbell River Salmon Foundation, helped build
a channel for Coho salmon on Vancouver Island
www.finning.ca
Logger Mike Gage’s family profited from fishing the salmon
that thrived in Campbell River on Vancouver Island for over four
decades. So, when the B.C. Department of Fisheries and Oceans
and the Sayward Fish and Game Association identified blocked
flood channels as a threat to Coho stocks in the Salmon River and
Big Tree Creek area, the 68-year-old felt he had to do something.
“The fish have been good to my family,” says Gage, who is also
the chairman of the Campbell River Salmon Foundation. “Three
of my five boys put themselves through university as fishing
guides, back when fishing was really good. Our entire family has
done well on the backs of fish stocks. This was a chance to put
things back.”
The channels in the river had been disrupted by nature and
human activity, some blocked off permanently with logging debris.
In the fall when water levels dropped off, fish were trapped and
died. In collaboration with the B.C. Conservation Foundation, B.C.
Hydro, the Habitat Conservation Trust Fund and Western Forest
Products, Gage and others raised $350,000 to construct a 1.2kilometre channel that would supply a steady flow of water and
create a way to open water for the fish from the Salmon River.
“It was an expensive project but worthwhile,” says Gage.
Northwest Hydraulics did the surveying and built test wells
in 2007, got all the permissions and licences required. A crew of
eight people, including one engineer and an on-site supervisor,
built the channel over six weeks in summer 2008, connecting it to
an existing natural flood channel.
The team felled timber, loaded it out, excavated the channel
close to the main river, and placed woody debris in the bottom,
with a fleet composed entirely of Cat equipment: three 330s, three
excavators, a D7 bulldozer, and two Cat articulated low ground
pressure trucks. “The machines worked well for us,” he says. “If
you’re not sure what to buy, buy Cat.”
The job was done by mid-September. By late October the
channel was already full of juvenile Coho, says Gage. “They’ll
spend all winter in there, living on the critters that come out of the
gravel and next spring they will head to sea,” he says. “Now they
have a good home until they’re ready to go.”
www.finning.ca
COMPANY PROFILE: Marlo Logging
Ready
for
Change
A venerable Quesnel logging
company is staying ahead by
embracing industry challenges
Story by Jim Stirling
photography by ricardo alberto leiva
EYES TO THE FUTURE: Undaunted by tough times,
James Godsoe is optimistic about a changing industry
www.finning.ca
J
ames Godsoe has his sleeves rolled up and is ready
for whatever the future throws at him. The 37-yearold entrepreneur is the new hand on the tiller of
Marlo Logging, a log harvesting company that has
been an industry institution in the Quesnel region of central
British Columbia for 47 years. And, while Godsoe recognizes
the myriad problems facing the regional forest industry, he’s
embracing the challenge of his position.
He has plans to expand Marlo Logging with new equipment to ensure the company can accommodate whatever
new roles and opportunities present themselves. Caterpillar
equipment and Finning (Canada) service and leasing deals
are already playing a pivotal role in that process.
Running the company is a new experience for Godsoe.
But he’s worked for the logging company since 1990, and is
familiar with Marlo’s culture of performance. Brothers Bob
and Don Sales began Marlo Logging in 1962. Rather than become a logging industry survivor, it’s a thriver. It has successfully navigated the comprehensive changes to log harvesting
systems and forest management. Marlo has adjusted to periods of intense corporate concentration in the forest industry
that today have left only the largest and most cost-efficient
companies standing.
Godsoe’s first assignment for Marlo was running a Cat 518
line skidder. He set up his own company in 1996 to assume
the log processing and sorting functions for Marlo. He used
Cat 320 and 330 carriers to help him do it. The arrangement
worked well until 2006 when the Sales brothers finally decided to enjoy their well-earned retirement. And that opened
the door for Godsoe. “I really wanted to own the company,”
he confides. “I’m a little more broke than I was before, but
you have to take a chance to get the rewards.”
Godsoe’s good news – acquiring Marlo Logging – is tempered by the industry’s list of woes. Heading those is the
mountain pine beetle epidemic which has killed much of
www.finning.ca
the lodgepole pine forest that is the heart of the Quesnel region’s timber supply. The U.S. housing market collapse has
also caused lumber demand to free-fall. The reach of the
American lending crisis has also extended to B.C.’s loggers,
with much uncertainty afoot. And, just for good measure,
the loonie’s relatively high value until recently had eroded
Canada’s competitive edge in world lumber markets.
Sensibly, Godsoe concentrates on what he can control.
“The market will come back, and until it does you have to try
and make the best of it.” And, so far, Godsoe and Marlo have
been operating steadily. “Running a company is better than
[counting on] wages or being closed down. It all depends on
how you look at it,” he says. One thing that Godsoe is confident of is that – despite the times – he has the business capacity to grow the company.
“I want to harvest more volume and update the machines,” he says. He has plans to harvest in excess of 300,000
cubic metres of wood annually, up from around 225,000.
He had to decide where to begin the machine update process and start rotating some of the older pieces of equipment
in Marlo’s logging fleet. First up was replacing a Cat D7
dozer with more than 24,000 hours on it. “I ended up with
a new Cat D6R and that led to a three-machine deal,” recalls
Godsoe. (See sidebar, page 40.)
The other machines he bought were a Cat CS 570E small
drum compacter for road building. The third acquisition
was a new Cat 545C skidder. The call for the skidder illustrates the ever-changing complexion of harvesting systems
to meet the log requirements of the large forest companies. Marlo Logging had been operating a cut-to-length lag
harvesting system since 1996. It was one of the regional
pioneers of the process, which involves using forwarders
to pick up logs, which have been cut and limbed to specified lengths at the stump, and transporting them roadside
to logging trucks.
COMPANY PROFILE: Marlo Logging
recognizes leasing equipment is no panacea.
He says that a cost-effective leasing arrangement depends on the machine, the nature of
the tasks it’s performing and how much use
the piece is getting. “If I can make a dollar this
way, I’ll be happy,” he says.
Finning has been right on the ball. “They’re
good to work with. They’re in town, the support’s good and the product’s good,” he says.
The staff at Finning understand the products
have to be backed up and the necessary parts
have to be available because each hour of
downtime is costly, he adds.
One of his easiest decisions since taking
over the company was retaining the recognizable Marlo Logging name. “I wanted to keep
and honour the name,” he says. “The Sales
brothers worked a long time to build up that
name. They taught me a lot, and I’ve a lot of
respect for them.”
Godsoe is also keen on sustaining and developing the Marlo relationship with licensee
West Fraser. “You have to work with the mill
and try and keep them happy,” he explains.
“You have to figure out how the system works.
It’s been fun. I like the challenge of it.” Godsoe
“It’s better to be the first to try
something than the last.”
West Fraser Timber Co., Marlo’s licensee,
now wants about 70 per cent of its volume cut
to specified length and 30 per cent cut to tree
length. That, in turn, means the skidder is required to drag the long length stems from the
bush to the roadside for processing and transport to the mill. The new Cat 545 has been performing admirably in that function during its
first 700 hours, reports Godsoe.
He acquired the Caterpillar trio of dozer,
compacter and skidder on a lease basis arranged by Finning. “I told them this is what I
wanted done and Finning put it all together,”
explains Godsoe. “With the leasing arrangement you can be more flexible as to what you
can afford,” he adds. There’s the added advantage of predictability and tax benefits. Godsoe
reckons working with West Fraser in Quesnel
is a bonus, despite the problems facing the
B.C. logging industry. “West Fraser has a new
sawmill in Quesnel, which is also its headquarters,” he says. “This is the best place to be.”
There’s considerable speculation about
what new type of forest industry might emerge
from all the ills currently besieging the sector.
There will continue to be a demand for commodity lumber products, say the experts. But
there’s also pressure to make better use of the
total forest resource with other wood products.
Emerging industries or products don’t daunt
Godsoe. “We’re dealing with new stuff every
day,” he says. Working with hog fuels or chips
and fibre for use in the developing bioenergy
field are variations on a theme, which Godsoe
believes he can accommodate with an open
mind and commitment to work with the mill.
“It’s better to be the first to do something and
be willing to set the precedent than be the last,”
he says. Nothing like a confident young hand
at the controls.
Third machine lucky
Spare a thought for the logging equipment salespeople as they go about their
daily toil during the industry’s unprecedented downturn. “It’s big-time competitive out there,” Russ Peterson says. He’s
a Finning customer account manager
based in Prince George, B.C. Naturally,
he’s particularly pleased that Marlo Logging – one of the oldest log harvesting
companies in Quesnel – opted for a package of three new Cat machines. They
were delivered on a rental basis with the
possibility of further deals in the offing.
Peterson has been accommodating customers in the Quesnel region for a couple
of years. He says that for a variety of reasons, during the last few years sales have
slowed. That’s why the deal with Marlo’s
new young owner, James Godsoe, was so
significant and gratifying. But, given the
times, it was no gimme.
The pivotal deal was for a mid-sized
dozer, primarily for road building. The decision came down to a competitor’s machine and a Cat D6R duking it out side by
side on one of Marlo’s logging jobs. “The
D6 did more of what I expected,” says
Godsoe. He gave the nod to Finning. Deals
for a new Cat 545C skidder and a CS
570E small drum compacter followed.
Peterson notes the 570E is gaining
increasing attention from loggers for
the construction of temporary roads.
The Cat compacters have demonstrated
an ability to prepare the temporary logging road surface so it can extend
hauling hours before being deactivated when specified by the B.C. Ministry of
Forests and Range.
All of Marlo’s new Cats are working on
a leasing deal organized and supported
by Finning. Peterson predicts other logging contractors will pay more attention
to the leasing option. It offers fixed cost
benefits and might prove the best option,
he thinks, depending on each machine’s
operational circumstances. It’s a buyers’
market out there right now and likely to
remain that way for a while. “What we’re
saying is that we at Finning want your
business,” declares Peterson. “Look to
us before you make a decision.”
www.finning.ca
www.finning.ca
Count On Us
Service to the North
Bound for the North in 1980, Caterpillar equipment is
loaded on a barge in Vancouver for an 1,800-kilometre trip
via sea and rail to the Yukon. Finning chartered the barge to
carry 22 tractors, loaders, scrapers and excavators weighing
807 metric tonnes and valued at more than $6 million to
resource companies in the Whitehorse and Dawson City
areas. The week-long trip covered 1,644 kilometres on water
to Skagway, Alaska, where the shipment was transferred to
a special 19-car White Pass & Yukon Route train for the
178- kilometre trip to Whitehorse.
www.finning.ca
REMANUFACTURED
OR REPAIRED?
It’s Your Choice.
Cat® Reman or Repair options for your
machine control and guidance systems.
Keep your control and guidance system—and your entire operation—on course with one of two affordable repair options from Caterpillar.
Either way you’ll get Cat® quality, Cat performance, and Cat reliability with minimal downtime.
Look to the world’s largest, most responsive support network to help you navigate the toughest work. For more information about repair options for
your AccuGrade™, AQUILA™, Computer Aided Earthmoving System (CAES), or MineStar™ control and guidance system, call your Cat Dealer or visit
www.cat.com today.
When the going gets tough...
We are faced with unprecedented times in
the Forest Products industry. Your equipment
decisions are more important than ever.
So when trouble strikes, do you patch it, fix it right
or replace the whole thing?
t1BUDIJOHJUFYQPTFTZPVUPDBUBTUSPQIJDGBJMVSF
but is the lowest cost.
tFixing it right may take time that you don’t have.
tReplacing it is easy, but can you make
the payments?
High risk vs. down time vs. cash flow…
What is the answer?
Finning (Canada) can help you find the best
solution for your business. Certified Rebuilt
$PNQPOFOUT.BJOUFOBODF"HSFFNFOUT1MBOOFE
Component Replacements or Certified Rebuilds are
POMZBGFXPGUIFQSPHSBNTXFIBWFBWBJMBCMFUP
help you make the right choice.
Call your Finning representative today.
There are no simple solutions.
Only intelligent choices.

In theThick of it

Transcription

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