Cameron Steel’s 75,000-sq.-ft. facility, located in Lindsay, Ont., has been producing large fabricated parts since 1975.

Cameron Steel has been a fixture in Lindsay, Ont., since 1975. Over the years the fabricator had grown out of its 17,000-sq.-ft. shop and moved to a new location, where it established a 75,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility with up to 30 ft. under hook at 50 tons’ capacity. The company has focused on producing large components for the mining, wood processing mills, military, pulp and paper, marine, automotive, and heavy equipment industries and has longstanding customers in North America with end users across the globe.

Today the company has approximately 65 employees and offers fabricating, welding, machining, painting, blasting, and millwrighting services; rubber coating; and inspection and testing. The facility was designed to accommodate large, heavy component manufacturing up to 50 tons using forklifts, 19 cranes with up to 50-ton capacity, and an in-floor rail track system.

"Our company has grown over the years to meet our customers’ requirements," said James Bogar, owner and president of Cameron Steel. "We’ve purchased capital equipment and expanded our capabilities to take on more work instead of having to sub-contract out certain processes."

One way the shop has done this is by adding grit blasting and coating services with a 7,200-sq.-ft. finishing area. This centrally located section of the shop includes a 20- by 20- by 40-ft.-deep, environmentally approved downdraft paint booth, along with a 20- by 20- by 36-ft.-deep, environmentally approved sandblast to prepare surfaces before painting.

With over 30 years of finishing experience, the company is proficiently able to finish even to military standards and has experience with enamels, epoxies, and tar-based coatings, as well as abrasives for blasting.

"Back when we first started out, we used to blast parts outside and paint them in the shop on the afternoon shift," said Bogar. "However, this was inefficient and quality was compromised. That’s when we decided to build our two large booths. So now we’re all set up for blasting, painting, and offering rubber lining services."

The decision to add painting and finishing booths was simple for Cameron Steel. The fabricator needed to be able to offer these services to its customers, and outsourcing was not an option for such large components. The cost of shipping alone would make it hard for the company to compete. Bogar said that having it under the shop’s roof gives them control over the quality and the process, especially when dealing with a customer base with very specific paint requirements.

"There’s also the risk of damage every time something gets handled," added Paul Tamlin, sales manager for Cameron Steel. "The less material handling the better. That’s what makes having painting and blasting in-house such a benefit." Most fabrication shops that take on a lot of large projects know that things can come down to the wire, making it hard to schedule painting. Lead times don’t always allow for painting to occur offsite, making a paint booth on the shop floor all the more important.

Having painting and blasting in-house makes quality easier to control. However, one thing that cannot be controlled is humidity.

"We operate in a heated environment; however, we cannot control the humidity in the summer," said Bogar. "There are occasions where the humidity can become very high. In these instances, we can shift and schedule our projects to ensure quality paint jobs. Humidity can put limitations on the amount of time we have to paint after a component has been blasted because it tends to rust quicker in a humid environment. The paint cure times increase, because solvents can’t flash off as quickly."

The fabricator specializes in manufacturing extremely large components, including this building maintenance unit (BMU), which will be installed on a high-rise rooftop telescopic crane.

Cold doesn’t tend to be a factor, especially because the booth is located in a heated environment.

Cameron Steel decided that it wanted to incorporate grit blasting using recyclable media. The company uses a hardened steel grit that can be recycled automatically through a system set up under the booth.

"The system includes a dust collector, not only to provide dust-free air into the booth, but also as it’s reclaiming the product, the dust is removed," said Bogar.

The fabricator can blast with other media depending on customer specifications. For example, non-ferrous metals can be blasted with silica-free crushed glass. Bogar noted that in one instance a customer specified aluminum oxide media, which does not contaminate stainless steel, is more aggressive than crushed glass, is harder than hardened steel grit, and is quite a bit more expensive.

Customers specify the blast profile and the condition they want, such as pure white, near white, or commercial blast. They also stipulate the exact paint system, including the layer thickness of the paint and what kind of testing they want.

"It’s all really customer-driven," said Bogar. "Sometimes, once a part is finished in terms of fabricating and welding, we will blast it and put a primer coat on it before we machine it. That’s so we don’t have to spend as much time shielding the machined surfaces from the grit blasting. It can be quite aggressive. Other times we would just fully inspect the part and send it for blasting. Painting is really the last part of the process."

The blasting process creates peaks and valleys called the anchor profile, which is important for paint adhesion. The team measures this surface profile to ensure the anchor profile is correct and meets specifications and that no spot is missed before the part is ready for paint. Without a correct anchor profile, paint can peel right off the metal like a sheet of paper. The company paints primarily with epoxy paint but does sometimes use alkyd or enamel paint. On a machined surface, epoxy paint will not adhere to the surface, which is why blasting is so important.

Located just blocks away, Cameron Steel’s rubber coating division applies rubber lining to components to reduce corrosion and abrasion.

The company also offers rubber lining services in a dedicated facility off-site at a location it previously used for its fabrication shop. The rubber lining facility is a complementary service the company saw a growing need for in the market and can offer its customers.

Rubber is applied primarily as a wear liner to reduce corrosion and wear caused by abrasion. The company offers a range of rubber materials depending on customer specifications.

Cameron Steel invested in a 20- by 20- by 40-ft.-deep, environmentally approved downdraft paint booth, along with a 20- by 20- by 36-ft.-deep, environmentally approved sandblast to prepare surfaces before painting.

For working with customers in the mining, oil and gas, marine, power generation, water treatment, pulp and paper, pumps, and other industrial uses, the company decided that adding this service just made sense and it had the dedicated space to make it happen.

"Cameron Steel has always consistently grown because we’ve always adapted to the needs of our customers," said Bogar. "We’ve recently invested over a million dollars in our facility."

Last year the company added two pieces of equipment: a CNC horizontal boring mill and a CNC vertical turning centre for the machine shop.

"We are constantly looking for ways to improve," added Tamlin. "The products and components that ship out of this facility end up all over the world. That’s because we offer quality services from start to finish and our customers rely on that."

Associate Editor Lindsay Luminoso can be reached at lluminoso@canadianfabweld.com.

Cameron Steel, www.cameronsteel.com

Canadian Metalworking / Canadian Fabricating & Welding

Toronto, M1R 0A1 Canada

See More by Lindsay Luminoso

Lindsay Luminoso, associate editor, contributes to both Canadian Metalworking and Canadian Fabricating & Welding. She worked as an associate editor/web editor, at Canadian Metalworking from 2014-2016 and was most recently an associate editor at Design Engineering.

Luminoso has a bachelor of arts from Carleton University, a bachelor of education from Ottawa University, and a graduate certificate in book, magazine, and digital publishing from Centennial College.

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