FAQ & What’s New?

What is new at TASKMASTER?

November 2021

With some stability and growth over the past several months we are cautiously optimistic. We have continued to hire more staff to once again grow our team to meet increasing demands.

As always, we have looked at continued diversification for not only the ability to provide more services to existing customers but to also potentially segue into new industries and opportunities.

Something new for us is a more focused look into welding automation for the purpose of fabrication. Our expertise in all aspects lends well to this projects success.

We have purchased a robotic welding cell set up for mig weld fabrication and hope to have it commissioned and tested over the coming months. We already have a few product lines in mind and really the future is wide open as to the new markets we can look at with this venture.

We are Looking forward to a bright 2022.

March 2021

A year has passed and what a strange one it has been. We could not have predicted how the pandemic would effect the world for this duration.

At Taskmaster, we have gone through drastic measures as have many in our industry.

We made major changes in management and operations to reduce overhead and become increasingly efficient.

We kept our core group of production staff employed, and while we didn’t always have production jobs for everyone, so we set forth a plan to continue to do maintenance and shop improvement projects.

We continued to aggressively focus on process development and refinement especially in regards to further market diversification.

Feeling like the worst is behind us, we look forward to once again evolving as the markets change in a positive manner.

We thank all of our customers for their ongoing support through these tough times, it is very humbling.

March 2020

To our valued clients and suppliers:
Amid ongoing concerns about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak around the world and close to home, I want to update you about what Taskmaster is doing to navigate the situation.
First, I want to emphasize we remain open for business, are fully operational and have taken steps to ensure we will be able to continue to carry out our work for you under changing circumstances.
We have taken precautionary measures to ensure the health and well being of our clients, team members and families.
Our team members continue to be available to connect with you by phone, email or video messaging — we have put a hold on customer or supplier visits unless deemed necessary.
Taskmaster has instituted cleaning protocols in our facility to ensure a safe environment for our team members and clients. We are monitoring Health Canada recommendations around workplace wellness and safety and will be nimble to adapt our approach as required.
We communicate to our staff the latest information and protocols as it is made available from health Canada.
To limit the potential impact of COVID-19, Taskmaster has instituted travel restrictions. We also are deferring social events and large meetings.
We greatly value your business; your safe working relationship with Taskmaster is our priority. Please contact your business advisor with any questions.
Sincerely,

Maren Stevens
President

December 2019

With barely a moment to blink, Christmas season is upon us and the calendar year is ending. As we at Taskmaster take a moment to reflect on a busy 2019, We have much to be thankful for.

The last few years we have undergone some major evolution in the company from top to bottom, and this past year we were focussed on equipment and the facility.

With Bay 1 on the property becoming available this spring we once again had opportunity for expansion. Some major renovations were required, and then began the process of equipment shuffling. The company is now roughly 25000 Sq ft. between the 2 buildings.

With the expansion, we added a few new pieces of equipment to our repertoire and did a complete overhaul of the shop layout. At this point, we have installed or relocated a staggering 29 machines this year. We have moved equipment in all departments, with the result being a superior structure for safety, workflow and organization. This will translate into more efficiency and increased capacity.

We also have converted the old Office space in Bay 5 to house our new Purchasing/inventory/gauge control room. This project has been a long time coming, and we are hopeful that this will lead to further improvement for our staff being able to not only know what we have, and where it is, but it will be on hand and available when they need it.

As can be expected, all these changes did impact our ability regarding job flow, and we appreciate our customers patience when things were interrupted.

By no means does this mean we are satisfied and done with making improvements, but for now we can take a breath and focus back onto improving our production operations efficiency and quality.

Our team is ready to get after it in the new year and show what we can do for both our loyal existing customer base as well as new customers coming on stream. We truly appreciate the relationship we have with our customers and thank them all for understanding and patience supporting us through these transitions. We are hopeful that 2020 we be a great year for us all.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy new year!

September 2019

Timing couldn’t have been better, as with our renovations and expansion, we were able to pick up some used equipment tp increase capacity. A pair of turnkey blast cabinets for grit blasting and shot peen, and an amazing vertical grinder were some of the highlights.

July 2019

Expanding into Bay 1 gives us the entire property. But with this comes the need for many renovations and upgrades to both the building and the yard.

April 2019

We have added a brand new CNC lathe with live tooling! This high end machine will allow us to eliminate multiple set ups as it has the live tooling feature for milling, etc. This in turn will improve product output and quality, and allow us to be more competitive on complex machining applications.

February 2019

We have once again increased our PTA capacity by adding another unit. This cell is our 5th conventional semi automated station. With this, plus our robot cell, hand held, and mobile unit, we now have a total of 8 PTA systems to handle projects at a very large scale.

December 2018

With Christmas season fast approaching and the calendar year ending, we at Taskmaster take a moment to reflect on a busy 2018. We have much to be thankful for.
The year started out with some positive change carried over from 2017. Workloads were increasing from both our traditional customer base as well as new areas of growth we had been working to diversify into. With plans to improve the company in all aspects from management, facility, equipment, production staff, safety program, and QA system our goals for 2018 were lofty.
We had an overhaul with our administration team to create new synergies, complete checks and balances and grow our business system. This continues to be a positive ongoing evolution.
We have continued to build our production staff through hiring both experienced personnel as well as entry level trainees. This proved to add challenges to our operations management so logically we began to implement change within that system.
We created a new position of operations manager, Quality team leader, and Domi Parades transitions into more strictly a sales / customer service / support role.
Our QA team is also undergoing growth and changes in roles. We are proud to announce that on NOV 28th, 2018, we passed our final audit to become ISO 9001:2015 certified.

Our safety program has been revitalized with a new safety Chairman and committee put in place.
Our maintenance program is in the process of being restructured for improvements.
The facility has had several upgrades from the expansion of the Thermal spray department, crane upgrades in our finishing area, expansion of Bay 3 CNC machine shop department. We also added more Square feet by leasing Bay 2 of the property, where we moved into our new main office. Other lagging general maintenance has been addressed with lighting and electrical updates, etc.
Equipment wise, we have added a few things to increase production like more thermal spray and grinding machines. Focus on developing our Internal Thermal spray coatings and finishing equipment and process is ongoing.
With all these changes and growth, the challenges presented did at times hinder our ability to perform at the consistent level we strive for. Customers may have experience delays, the odd quality concern, or even hiccups in our administration processes. Rest assured that these opportunities to improve are of utmost concern to all the Taskmaster team and are the reason we continue to move forward implementing new systems.
As we enter into 2019, a planned improvement for our operational system is the implementation of Job-Boss shop management software. This will tie together all the data we track while reducing chances for error between administration and operations functions.
We truly appreciate the relationship we have with our customers and thank them all for understanding and patience supporting us through these transitions. We are hopeful that 2019 we be a great year for us all.
We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy new year!

September 2018, Upgraded Oxygen system for increased volume!

We are growing again early in 2018

With the addition of another 2500 square feet added through leasing an adjacent bay, we are upgrading our main office/reception area. With these changes, we have removed some older office space creating room for expansion in our CNC bay. A new live tooling CNC is set for delivery around Christmas!

Additionally, the new bay has some shop space we are dedicating for the purpose of increasing capacity in our ID spray coatings. The addition of 2 used vertical honing machines, as well as upgrading and retrofitting an old spray lathe dedicated for ID’s will help us to grow with the demands and improve product flow.

As we continue to grow into new markets and deal with increasing volumes, we continue to hire and train new staff. To handle this growth we are also going through some transitions within the management team to make things most efficient. We all feel that the changes and new additions only help the strengthen and diversify the team.

We offer ‘Stub welding’ and re-threading for oil tool such as Rotors!

Some of our customers may not know that we have these capability’s or offer this service, well we do, and we are great at it!

Sept. 2017, Taskmaster attends Schweissen-Schneiden trade expo in Düsseldorf Germany!

Happening only once every 4 years, the schweissen/schneiden trade expo for welding, cutting, surface treatment and coatings is the premier showcase for the latest and greatest technological breakthroughs in the industry.

Taskmaster president Maren Stevens, had the opportunity to network with a multitude of new connections to bolster our supply chain, process application knowledge, as well as new technologies to take the company forward into the future.

At Taskmaster we continue our mission to find new creative ways to improve service and the needs of each and every customer.

Why Use Taskmaster for non-mag hard-banding?

There are many opinions regarding welding hard bands or hard surfacing in general on non-mag materials. The real only industry accepted methods are PTA or Laser clad.

What sets Taskmaster apart are our years of experience using our proprietary PTA equipment, procedures, as well as materials.

The ‘magic’ in the performance is in the tailored wear characteristics of the weld whereas the hard-band wears at such a rate to protect the base material bar. Where some people try to find ways to make the hard-band itself last longer, in many cases doing so can be detrimental to the bar it is designed to protect.

Problems such as ‘mud ring grooves’ and cracking become a common problem of these efforts.

In comparison to Laser hard bands, our PTA product is less brittle and seems to resist chipping and disbanding. Here is an example of a failed Laser band:

Additionally, our PTA process is typically faster and more economical in comparison to Laser.

May 2016, Mobile Hard-banding Service now available!

To respond to industry demands, we are pleased to announce that we now offer mobilized service for PTA hard Banding. When shipping cost of tools can become costly, if the volumes are right, you can save substantially by having our service come to you.

What makes Taskmaster different from the competition? Custom Automation

At Taskmaster, we have the ability to design, manufacture, and program custom application automation allowing us to adapt our coating technology to tackle projects that fall into the realm that would generally be ‘out of the box’ and not suitable for ‘off the shelf’ type equipment. We have tailored applications for PTA, Thermal spray, and so much more. If you have a difficult project, try us out.

April 2016

Dear Valued customers,

Wow, who would have thought that the market would stay down for so long… and the end isn’t in sight yet.

Times have changed, so many businesses continue to struggle. Sadly, so many  more have closed unable to weather this collapse in the economy. We continue to fight, finding ways to get things done with reduced costs, shortening of staff, and reduced work volumes. We are leaving no stone unturned in our search for markets for our business. We appreciate every opportunity we get from each and every customer, and hope we can all put through together. Seeing the unemployment rates soar in Alberta to unprecedented levels is most disturbing as families face harsh times.

On the bright side, many experts believe that we have seen the bottom of oil prices, and the outlook is for a slow but gradual recovery. For many, I fear that the recovery comes too little and too late, but we face the situation with Alberta proud determination.

Together we stand strong.

May 2015

Dear Valued Customers,

With the current instability of the oil and gas industry, we have been asked by several customers to try to reduce costs. Some requests are for reductions up to 25%.

This is a very difficult request to comply to. To this point we have avoided making any price increases in 2015 despite the weaker Canadian dollar causing our materials costs to increase. In the hardfacing industry, the cost of materials is largely the highest expense in terms of overall job cost. By just holding costs, we have already lost most of the profit margin from our old pricing. Still, We have done our best to reduce prices where we can. Currently we are taking on many jobs for ‘cost’ just to try to keep staff members busy, and customers happy.

Unfortunately, we are not immune to the market slowdown, and we have had to reduce Staff and cut back employee hours accordingly.

At Taskmaster, our belief has always been to provide fair value for top quality products and services, We refuse to compromise in regards to quality of the materials we use as well as the process equipment we employ.

For some customers and competitors, the bottom line price is the only determining factor for awarding contracts. We recognize that in some instances, our belief has cost us in these opportunities. Where competitors may choose to cut costs by using ‘cheaper’ materials, or equipment that costs less, or is cheaper to run, we refuse.

Our HVOF system, the JP8000 ‘is best in class’ in terms of quality performance, but this performance comes at a cost. It is also one of the most expensive systems to operate from both a consumables standpoint as well as equipment price and maintenance costs.

As prices get scrutinized in these tough times, we understand the importance of improving efficiencies, and we are willing to invest in process equipment and procedural upgrades to make us more competitive. While we are also willing to trim profit margins to help out, we can only do so much.

At Taskmaster, our brand has always stood for Value, Quality and Service. Rest assured that each time we provide you with a quote, we do so with this in mind and provide the best price that we can do. We hope that the relationships and trust built over the years of service will keep loyalty to our company and allow us to get through these tough times together.

Sincerely,

Maren Stevens

President

December 2014

With the close of 2014, we are finalizing some major projects.

The Re-vamping of our thermal spray department:

– adding a 16′ spray lathe station,

– the vertical internal spray station,

– new booth dedicated for the Spray and fuse process

Improvements in Grinding Capacity:

– 3 additional cylindrical grinders (we now have 9 for OD, 3 for ID, and 2 surface grinders)

– 1 crankshaft style grinder to handle unusual parts

AS well as our big CNC Machining department upgrades!

Laboratory upgrade! March 3, 2014

We have once again updated our metallurgical lab with the addition of a new vickers microhrdness machine. We take supplier material Quality Control to a new level testing batches to determine ‘approved’ material for use on customers products. We use only premiun products, and have the data to back that up!

Large capacity CNC Manufacturing!

The big Lathe is the OKUMA LB45II-3000 Super big Bore. With a 3 meter bed, and 10.5″ through bore, we are ready to take on some of your bigger projects. Of course, the OKUMA name stands for quality, and while many people in oil and gas maunfacting believe that you do not need a high end Japanese machine to do this sort of work, Our continued commitment to providing top value and quality for our customers makes this a ‘no brainer’. As in most cases, you do get what you pay for.

Our CNC milling is the Haas VF-7/50. With travels of 84″x32″x30″, this is a perfect complimet to the big lathe. Again, Haas milling machines are well known for their value, as many of these mills are in some of the top machine shops in the Alberta maunfacturing market.

November 2013 – Addition of Vertical Lathe

Anyone in the machining industry can tell you the benefits of a good vertical lathe. Handling heavy or unusually shaped parts usuing gravity as your friend instead of fighting to hold things in a horizontal position makes many jobs much simpler.

Our new addition has the capacity of a 40″ swing so a good addition to our capacity!

August 2013 – Phase 2 of Robotic PTA cell complete

With over a year of operations on our Robotic PTA cell, we have now comleted phase 2 to increase production. An unconventional approach to hardsurfacing, we acually use the “robot” to manipulate the work piece rather than the welding torch like most others. Phase 2, was to get a second robot operational so that the two units could work in tandem opposing each other. While one of the robots is being loaded / unloaded of the workpiece, the other is ‘hardsurfacing’, manipulating the part in the welding process.

This system will again enhance productivity and continue to allow us to meet customer demands of quick product turnaround.

August  2012 – Smart Arc – Twin Wire Arc spray system in opperation.

Another recent equipment addition for Taskmaster is the Sulzer Metco Smart Arc wire spray system. Just another application in the thermal spray field we can now offer! Check out our thermal sprat page for more information

July 13, 2012 – OPEN HOUSE

A number of visitors took the time to enjoy our annual open house. We were pleased to show our recent equipment upgrades including the JP-8100 HVOF system mounted on ABB robotics, the ROBOTIC Plasma trasferred ARC welding cell, and our Heavy Duty Hone for internal cylinders.

We continually strive to make process improvements to provide our customers with the ultimate in quality and service!

June 2012 – NEW HVOF System!

We are proud to announce that the latest in HVOF technology, the TAFA JP-8100, is our newest addition to our thermal spray division!

This not only increases our capacity but also opens new doors to customer specifications we previously were not qualified for. We are exited to step into the next phase of HVOF!

March 2012 – We can HONE!

We have added Honing to our list of services with the addition of a heavy duty cylinder bore hone. We can handle a large variety of part sizes. Just ask us about it!

ROBOTIC PTA CELL – Fully operational!

As part of the Taskmaster vision, we always seek to improve and evolve our processes.

Thus we are proud to announce that we are entering a new phase in our automation development.

Our first 6 axis ‘ABB’ robotic work cell is fully operational, this unit will be used to further advance our PTA applications.

This new ‘6 axis’ work cell will serve to supplement our current capacity of 3 PTA stations fitted on Taskmaster linear automation. We are excited about the possibilities that could be explored with this 4th, most advanced PTA workstation!

June 1st, 2011, We Have Moved!

We Have completed our move from our old location to the new site and are in the final stages of re organizing and commissioning our spray department.

All other departments are fully functional, and ready to take on new challenges with our increase in capacity and space.

March 1st, 2011, Our T-3 PTA system is in operation!

We are pleased to announce that the next generation of Taskmaster PTA systems, the ‘T-3’, is in operation! We are putting it through full prototype testing working out any issues with the new software.
The T-3 features the same robust torch configurations as the original design with upgrades in weld oscillation control, New automation modes, and a new operator control interface.
The New automation modes will greatly enhance product quality, and repeatability.

The Taskmaster ‘mini’ internal torch is capable of overlays finishing at 2.25″ internal Diameter

Compared to other ‘mini’ PTA torches on the market, The Taskmaster-mini has an unorthodox style cooling jacket keeping the torch body and nozzle cool for high duty cycle production of up to 175 amps. This unique feature allows strong production rates while maintaining consistent parameter control for high product repeatability.

We have Phosphate coatings for rust protection on ferrous components.

Our phosphate tank is roughly 2′ x 2′ x 3′ so a modest capacity at this time. We have a larger tank ready to set up if work load dictates. This is just another value added process for our customers requirements.

We Have increased Surface Grinding capacity!

We are currently installing a new grinding machine to improve our services. The new OKAMOTO surface grinder has a magnetic table of 30″ x 60″ so we will be able to handle very large parts. We are pleased to offer this addition to help service our existing customers as well as any new potential customers who may need use of such large capacity!

Taskmaster develops an improved Tungsten Carbide PTA Overlay!

June 9, 2009. We have recently developed a proprietary improvement on the typical PTA process whereas we have combined the quality tungsten carbide composite coatings that the PTA is known for with larger particle tungsten carbide clusters. This will serve a huge benefit to the oiltool market on such products as bearings, flow restrictors, stabilizers, adjusting rings, etc. We are very pleased to offer this service to our customers to once again improve the performance of their products.

What are the benefits of Hardfacing and Coatings ?

1. Reduces Cost: Restoring a worn part to “as new” condition generally costs between 20-70% of a brand new replacement part.
2. Prolongs Equipment Life: Service life increases of 3 to 10 times are common with properly coated parts.
3. Reduces Downtime: Parts last longer and fewer shutdowns are required.
4. Less Spare Parts Inventory: There is no need to keep numerous spare parts when worn parts can be rebuilt.
5. Environmentally conscious: the ability to reuse and recycle rather than waste and replace.

What are the key advantages of PTA overlays?

1. Accuracy: automated controls provide highest levels of consistency controlling heat input
2. Quality: coating purity is extremely high with very little dilution into the base material
3. Productivity: much higher production rates than other processes of similar quality ( laser )

What base materials can be overlayed?

Almost any steel, or stainless based alloy can be overlayed, including manganese based or non-magnetic materials.

What new products are available?

Product development is an ongoing venture as companies strive to improve the service life of their equipment. Recently there have been improvements in the process, procedure, and products regarding the overlays of manganese based non-magnetic materials. We may be able to offer a superior product than you are currently using. Please contact us for more info.