BTI – Right Place, Right Time
Location, location, location are three words normally associated with prime residential real estate but for Breaker Technology Industries (BTI), they also describe where its industrial property is located in Thornbury, Ontario.
To some, the small town of 2,000 people on the south shore of Georgian Bay, 20 kilomteres west of Collingwood on Highway 26, may sound a touch out of the way for a manufacturing operation but for BTI, it’s been the company’s home since 1958 and since then, it has thrived and is now recognized as an international designer and manufacturer of rock-breaking tools for the mining industry.
Again, its location is a touch off the main highways of central Ontario but a closer look at its sprawling facilities, with Georgian Bay on one side and the Blue Mountain Ski Hills right out the back door, clearly shows that it’s not out of touch in any way when it comes to modern technology and designing and manufacturing high-performance mining tools and equipment.
In fact, the company has steadily grown from a three-man machine shop called JMG Manufacturing Ltd., named after its founders Jones, Meingast and Gardiner, through continuing stages of growth where its products became widely known for their strength and durability.
With this recognition came investors and in 1967, Teledyne Industries purchased JMG and with a new cash insurgence and ultimately more modern equipment, the company continued to grow and develop a broader line of applications for its core products under the Teledyne CM name.
Two a years later, Teledyne CM was bought by industry giant Astec Industries as a natural addition to its mining and aggregate business and today, BTI is one of five companies (along with Astec Mobile Screens, KPI-JCI, Osborn and Telesmith) that make up the Astec Mining Group.
It’s a proud association and one that has helped put BTI on the international map but nevertheless, it’s still a small-town company working in a big market.
By keeping its roots in Thornbury, the company takes pride in that most of its employees are mainly small-town residents too, and “like family” in that many of them have been with the company for decades.
In fact, BTI is the second largest employer in town with about 160 workers out of the 2,000 people who call Thornbury home. Only the municipal offices for the Collingwood Region employ more.
As Terry McKague, BTI’s Customer Service Manager and Director of Sales for Canada and Mexico says, “The people who work here are truly a family that have been together for a long time. Much like the town itself, it’s a place where almost everyone knows each other’s name and there’s a feeling of community within company.”
Loyalty to company is evident by the minimal number of staff turnovers and McKague credits much of that to the products the people are making and the pride they show in what goes out the door.
“The people who work here are true professionals who could work elsewhere if they wanted because of their skill levels but thankfully, they choose to work at BTI. We have welders who came to us when the ship yards at Collingwood closed in the 1990s and the skills they brought with them have been instrumental in helping us turn out some of the best equipment in the market.
“Welding is an art and while robotics do a great job in mass-production applications, the detailed work in some of our custom designs require a skilled, hands-on touch that only certain people can provide,” says McKague.
Breaker Technology is one of only a handful of Canadian equipment manufacturers to continue servicing the mining , construction, demolition, and aggregate industries for such a long time and again, McKague credits its people for its success but not only those on the shop floor, but those in the design and engineering departments too.
As already mentioned, BTI designs and manufacturers a wide range of rock-breaking tools but it’s also proud of the fact that it’s an ‘innovator’ when it comes to answering tough questions and solving unique problems.
One of the companies more recent designs is the Vibratory Pick, a scaling bit attachment that is designed to slice off slabs of hard rock in underground applications. Shaped like the bill of a Platypus, the broad bit enables the operator of an underground boom drill to strategically remove large sections to tunnel walls and ceilings to form a uniform shape.
McKague says the new scaler shapes and makes underground workings safer and easier to work with when it comes to installing wire mesh or shotcreting. The uniform shape eliminates the rough surfaces created by conventional drilling and breaking methods and makes for better, and safer, installations.
In keeping with safety and new technology, BTI’s engineers and designers are always working on new ideas including advancing product lines to include full system monitoring capability based on CAN Bus technology and implementing a new design of Rockbreaker Design with High Velocity Control. Called “Smart Boom,” BOOM SYSTEMS JUST GOT A LOT SMARTER!
BTI in its continued commitment to innovation in rock breaking, introduces its all new high-velocity control (HVC) boom system to its product line. The HVC is designed to meet with the ever increasing site operation need for faster boom speeds, without sacrificing control. This new generation of rock breaker boom systems differ significantly by providing “fly by wire” computer assisted control, allowing simultaneous dip and hoist functionality. This enables greater production through rapid, smooth motion into and out of the gyratory crusher rock box thereby increasing the number of truck dumps per hour and overall tonnage through the crusher. In fact, tests indicate an improved boom cycle rate (in and out of the gyratory rock box) of almost 50 percent. Combined with smoother operator control and reduced stress on boom, the Smart boom boasts several upgraded features such as:
• Higher horsepower electric motor.
• Higher flow rate pumps with constant horsepower control.
• High flow directional control valve.
• lectrical boom position feedback for speed and pressure control.
• Complete system upgrade providing superior duty cycle and performance characteristics.
This provides operators unparalleled performance in:
• Improved swing speed control.
• Swing pressure control.
• Soft stops – hoist, dipper, and swing.
• Arm moment speed control.
The HVC system or smart boom utilizes state-of-the-art sensors through a computer “brain” or IQAN-CANBus system to realize real-time position and constant force values, ensuring reduced shock loading and optimum use of force and speed where needed. Easy to use and intuitively responsive to the joystick operation, it truly is the next generation of boom systems.
From rockbreaker systems including hydraulics, booms and hammers, and specialty bits, to scissor lifts, crane and lube trucks, and all- and multi-purpose trucks and other mine vehicles, BTI of Thornbury, Ontario, designs and builds almost everything the world’s mining industry needs and it does so from one of the most unlikely locations for a manufacturer.
As mentioned at the outset, location, location, location is key and BTI has all three: it’s located in a welcoming community; it’s located close to a skilled workforce; and it’s located within easy access to a worldwide market with world-class products.
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