Rock-Tech sets high-tech standard: Rock-Tech sets new standard in ultra-modern plant.

• Author: Tollinsky, Norm
• Position: MINING

Sudbury-based Rock-Tech is setting a new standard for mining equipment manufacturing.

A totally refurbished 31,000-squarefoot manufacturing facility the company is moving into this month in Sudbury's Walden Industrial Park has been methodically designed for maximum productivity, energy efficiency and environmental sustainability.

Prior to moving into its new state-of-the-art home, the manufacturer of SatStat portable fuel/ lubricant storage and handling systems, Rhino XD stationary rockbreakers and the Titanium line of utility vehicles had been operating out of three buildings with less than half the space it has now.

Touring advanced manufacturing facilities in Scandinavia convinced Rock-Tech president Ricky Lemieux that the company had to invest to grow and compete in a global marketplace.

"Mining equipment manufacturers in Northern Ontario used to worry about competing against each another, but in the next five years we're going to see more and more international competition," said Lemieux. "We realized we had to change as a business if we are going to operate at that level. Business is a lot more sophisticated. Times have changed."

The new facility has three fully enclosed welding cells with dedicated ventilation for dust and noise control, providing welders and workers in the rest of the facility with an optimum working environment.

Lemieux doesn't know of any other fully enclosed welding cells in Sudbury or anywhere else, but with fabrication, warehousing and welding all happening in one cavernous building, it made sense to isolate the noise and fumes while also optimizing the ventilation and lighting.

A 20 by 40-foot paint and sandblasting booth will use steel shots (tiny pellets)--not sand--to prepare equipment surfaces for painting, and features a full recovery system. The steel shots bombard components and equipment prior to painting to remove scale and promote optimum adhesion. The recovery system with an auger underneath steel grates in the floor collects the steel shots and returns them to an elevated hopper using a bucket system.

In conventional sandblasting, the sand is shoveled out and there's a cost for disposal. Steel shots, by contrast, are recyclable, more aggressive and allow for a higher quality exterior finish for mining equipment operated in harsh acidic environments.

The paint booth has an independent ventilation system.

The assembly area of the facility is equipped with two 10-tonne cranes on runways, and there are...