CRH Canada

Several major infrastructure projects are currently going on in Montreal—from highways to bridges to interchanges. As a leading building materials company, CRH Canada has a long history of helping to build the city’s roads, buildings, hospitals and homes. This year is no exception and Demix Béton, a division of CRH Canada, is supplying concrete for several projects including the important Turcot Interchange that links several major highways together. CRH Canada’s Lasalle plant is strategically located to meet the demands of this major project. 

CRH Canada has been using Hardox wear plate from SSAB for their equipment for several years with good success. 

About 18 months ago, the Lasalle plant began using SSAB’s Duroxite overlay for their cement mixers to protect the arm assembly. “Using Duroxite made it possible to precut the pieces and assemble them in the mixers. This has allowed us to improve our production efficiency even more since we don’t have to change the blades as often as in the past,” says Nicolas Dussault, Mills and Maintenance Manager.

The Lasalle plant has 45 employees in total, with most responsible for driving the 35 trucks that transport the concrete mix from the machines. “The plant has grown massively with all the new infrastructure projects in Montreal,” Dussault says.

Lasalle used to be a satellite plant for CRH Canada used primarily to help other plants during peak production periods. Now, it is a central hub for the entire company. “We are on an exciting journey. It is very motivating for the whole staff that we are growing to be such an important part of the company. And we are also proud of the concrete we are producing,” Dussault says. 

Dussault appreciates SSAB not only for the products, but just as much for their expertise and service. “SSAB has great technical knowledge, so they understand the challenges we face with this project and work with us to continually improve our results.” The use of Duroxite has meant a lot of savings, which means that Dussault can now focus on upgrading other equipment with SSAB. “We are working now to upgrade the life of cutting edges on our buckets. We want to find solutions for increasing the life of our cutting edges instead of buying new parts from our distributor.”

CRH Canada

About CRH Canada
• CRH Canada Group Inc. is one of Canada’s largest vertically integrated building material and construction companies. The company has 3,000 employees that manufacture cement, aggregates and ready-mix concrete and provide construction services to many of Canada’s largest infrastructure projects.
• CRH Canada Group Inc. is a member of CRH plc. In total, the company employs more than 90,000 people in 31 countries around the world.

www.crhcanada.com

By Anne Margrethe Mannerfelt

This article has been published on SSAB World magazine’s issue 1/2017.