Surrey, British Columbia-based Industrial Equipment Manufacturing Ltd. is recognized for its superior-quality engineering and manufacturing of a diverse range of bulk materials handling equipment.
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Since it was formed, in 2003, the company has earned a reputation for excellence, value and service to clients in numerous industries around the world including pulp and paper mills, fracking operations, sawmills, mining facilities, ports and marine facilities, cement and aggregate plants, grain elevators and various bulk loading facilities.
IEM is known for designing and building even the most challenging bulk material handling projects. It began in 2003 when company President John Hards and Vice President of Finance Joe Wurz purchased the machinery design and manufacturing division of Industrial Equipment Co. Ltd, changing the name to Industrial Equipment Manufacturing Limited.
Hards has over forty years of in-depth manufacturing sector knowledge. He worked as a sawmill manager for a large forest products company and as a project manager for mill improvements. Hards also won the 1989 Manning Innovation Award for inventing the Durand Raute Rotary Veneer Clipper, which has led to more efficient production of veneer and plywood in the industry. The machine is used in nearly all of North America’s softwood veneer and plywood mills as well as many mills around the world.
Industrial Equipment Manufacturing creates customized solutions for clients active in the oil sands projects, forestry and wood processing and any others requiring bulk materials handling equipment. From apron feeders and mobile hoppers to belt feeders, belt conveyors, chain conveyors, handling systems, high lift conveyors and pulley cleaners, IEM’s range of bulk manufacturing handling equipment provides numerous advantages to its customers.
Industrial Equipment Manufacturing’s commitment to clients is viewed as a lifetime promise. Recognizing that relationships need maintenance, IEM believes in delivering on its promises. It strives to do so in a way that is clearly communicated, timely, professional, detailed, respectful of budget and responsive to client questions.
It all starts with unparalleled design expertise. IEM is skilled in providing its own brand of consultation to clients. At IEM, the design team also regularly works with other designers on projects, making the company adaptable to all customer needs.
“IEM engineers have great depth of knowledge and experience in the office, as well as in the field. The IEM design team understands the needs of a customer from a practical perspective,” says Victor Santisteban, director of business development at the company. “Our focus is to provide our clients with detailed engineering data. We will offer advice or full consultation in developing your design. View our sample scenarios and you’ll obtain a quick understanding of our design philosophy.
“John Williamson, P.Eng, is our Chief Engineer and is one of the reasons we can do many of the more difficult designs,” Santisteban continues. “He has worked in the engineering department on the design and manufacturing details of conveyors and related equipment.”
IEM prides itself on delivering detailed solutions and an unwavering commitment to all customers. Acknowledging that many clients already possess considerable industry knowledge, IEM’s decades of cumulative expertise see the company provide specific knowledge to ensure project success.
“We have a close relationship with all our clients,” says Santisteban. “We recognize that most clients and their staff have a great understanding of the big picture. We are here to provide our detailed knowledge and collective knowhow to engineers and designers. Our clients can access accumulated detailed knowledge of success, in all formations, all conditions and a variety of specifications.”
IEM is behind an array of quality equipment for numerous sectors. “We are involved in any industry that needs material handling equipment,” says Santisteban.
For clients in forest and wood processing, IEM specializes in design/build solutions, manufacturing a range of quality, reliable products, including the IEM Debarker – the most effective debarker and residual fibre recovery system on the market today. “One machine can handle all your wood processing needs,” explains Santisteban. The company’s rotary debarkers are able to handle 50 to 500 cubic metres of wood per hour, and its line of complete wood processing systems include all related material handling equipment for debarking, chipping, screening, standing and reclamation, along with portable, fully self-contained DEAL rotary debarkers.
The state-of-the-art IEM Debarker effectively handles a range of mixed diameters and lengths of wood by cleaning crooked and misshapen stems, handling frozen log debarking without the need to de-ice (saving time and money) and handling small diameter short wood pieces.
For clients in oil sands projects, the company manufactures pulley cleaners that are not only heavy duty, but designed, engineered and created to reduce down time ‘by preventing drop materials that build-up between the belt and pulley’. In addition, IEM’s belt cleaners are precision-designed, multi-disc scrapers which scrape material free from belts, so that it can then be removed.
IEM also designs and precisely manufactures a range of specialty products. These include two styles of take-ups with hydraulic assists which are used on high tension belt feeders and apron feeders. In addition, the company provides bearings, bearing housings and hydraulic nuts up to 48 inches in diameter. IEM carefully inspects, repairs and rebuilds bearings, saving clients up to eighty percent of the cost of purchasing a new bearing, while providing the same guarantee as an original.
Mobile hoppers are another area in which the company excels. IEM designed, fabricated, delivered and commissioned three travelling mobile hoppers and unloading carriages for the Neptune Bulk terminal (Canada) Ltd in 2013 with a capacity of 1375 t/h. IEM’s innovative mobile hopper allows for controlled feed of materials that are loaded onto a barge.
Industrial Equipment Manufacturing holds a number of certifications. It adheres to ISO 9001:2008 certifications; welding at the company’s plant in Surrey, British Columba is certified by the Canadian Welding Bureau to CSA W47.1 Division 2.1; while both steel and aluminum welding are CWB certified to CSA W47.1 and CSA W47.2.
Parts and components used in its bulk handling material equipment products are manufactured at its 50,000 square foot facility, using state-of-the-art equipment. IEM works with only the highest quality raw materials to ensure the quality and reliability of its bulk material handling equipment and the company has strict quality and production controls in place throughout the production process.
The company has established an office in Indonesia and is in the process of creating a manufacturing facility there. “Our Indonesian office will cover Indonesia and the South Pacific market for the forest and mining projects that may come through,” says Santisteban.
IEM has a skilled staff of approximately fifty who regularly takes on complicated design-build projects. Recently, shares in IEM were sold to employees of the company, making it now forty percent employee-owned owned. Industrial Equipment Manufacturing feels this structure works very well and continues to be a factor in the ongoing success of the company.
“The benefit is long-term employee commitment, therefore their skills are improved and built upon over time to become highly skilled employees at what IEM produces,” says Santisteban. “This ensures fewer errors and superior equipment being produced from their vast knowledge of the industry. IEM’s long-term goals do include constant improvements on products and always pushing the frontier on technologies. We have a large research and development department which is always working towards a goal of being the best in the industry with the latest technologies.”
