Investing in Our Customers The diversity of Wajax’s market knowledge, technical capabilities, broad product and service offer and manufacturer relationships makes every Canadian industrial or resource company a potential customer. Our goal is to maximize our potential with each customer by understanding their objectives and then configuring our business in a manner that best suits their needs. The following fifteen customer stories demonstrate the diversity of our ability to serve customers and are drawn from the approximately 900,000 customer transactions we completed in 2019.
North Warning System Short Range Radar Sites Working with a major defense contractor, Wajax is updating the power generation systems for the North Warning System Short Range Radar sites. The majority of the 37 sites are located in the Canadian Arctic and provide the Canadian and U.S. departments of defense with intrusion warnings. The project involves replacement of over 100 systems with new units designed, built and placed in hardened crates for shipping from Wajax’s Drummondville, Quebec power generation integration centre. Wajax’s team worked closely with our engine partners at Deutz on this project. Site work is performed in remote areas of the Arctic, with most locations accessible only by helicopter. The sites are required to operate continuously, requiring Wajax’s 3‑person installation crews to be onsite for up to nine days, working in harsh conditions and under tight timelines to install the new generators and avoid service interruptions. With a focus on safety and timelines, delivery of the units is expected to be completed in 2021.
Hitachi Reliability Unsurpassed – Even Under Extreme Conditions The Hitachi EX8000 is one of the world’s largest and most reliable hydraulic mining shovels. With a bucket capacity of up to 43 cubic meters, it can fill an ultra-class mining truck in roughly five passes. While the power of the machine is obvious, its reliability makes it a trusted asset for many of Canada’s large surface mining operations. The reliability of the EX8000 was recently demonstrated by a major Wajax customer during a prolonged cold stretch when temperatures ran to –40°C and the site’s cable shovel loading fleet was down due to the extreme cold. Mine operations leaders repositioned their EX8000s to be the sole production loaders for a 3‑day period and the EX8000s operated with near perfect 98.5% reliability, stopping only for fuel and maintenance checks. The combination of the power and reliability of Hitachi products and the sales, technical and aftermarket support provided by Wajax, have created strong partnerships with our mining customers with three additional large shovels scheduled for delivery in 2020.
Geared Up to Service the Oil Sands Ore conveyance and processing systems are critical components in an oil sands mine, and main drive gear boxes are key to the operation and reliability of these systems. A major oil sands customer experienced a critical late night failure in a main drive gear box during extreme weather conditions and requested that Wajax assess the problem and recommend a solution that would allow the customer to restart the affected operation. Wajax technical support was onsite quickly and completed a diagnosis of the problem within hours. With no spare gear boxes available at the customer’s site, Wajax’s technical team worked closely with the customer and provided support for an in-situ repair allowing a safe re-start of the system as quickly as possible. The customer’s satisfaction with Wajax’s responsiveness and technical knowledge resulted in further support to the customer for additional gear box storage, maintenance, reconditioning and preservation services.
10
When oil sands and mining customers have difficulties in material handling and processing systems, Wajax is there quickly and can apply technical expertise across a broad range of manufacturers and industries to get the customer running. Wajax 2019 Annual Report
