What A Difference A Year, 5 Years, and 50 Years Makes (5th Edition)

The 5th edition of this article involves many different ways of looking at MacLean Engineering and how it continues to evolve. On one hand, it can simply be a continuation of a year-over-year look at how we've changed, but that seems rather predictable. So perhaps looking at the last 5 years would bring to light even more impressive accomplishments. Or better yet, why not try and capture aspects of the entire 50 years of MacLean Engineering and celebrate past, present, and future all at once.

The picture at the top of this article shows a few examples of our products dating back through our 50 year history and intersecting with a series of paradigm shifts in the mining industry. It all started with Don MacLean, an idea, and a barn which you can learn more about in the short video below. Whether it is the LongTom, the Blockholer, the Scissor Bolter, or now the advent of BEVs we have enjoyed being part of a series of industry changing efforts to make mining safer and more productive, both at the same time.

Our product portfolio has enjoyed another great year of new developments that should give our customers many ways to enhance their operations and our employees a great sense of pride in their accomplishments. Here are a few updates on what has been keeping us busy.

The Utility Vehicle team has had no time to relax on the heels of the successful launch of the GR5 Grader in 2022, which has certainly caught the attention of our customers, both near and far, as the new champion of underground graders. We will see its BEV version coming out in 2023.

The team recently released the latest elevated work platform, the beautiful ML5 Multi-Lift. The ML5 is a wonderful mixture of BEV powertrain, highly functional boom positioning, and an advanced control system that will future-proof it for years to come. While the popular SL3 Scissor Lift has recently enjoyed its 300th build, we definitely see that adding the ML5 will take MacLean to new heights! You can read more about the ML5 here.

Our Shotcrete team has also been very busy keeping up with the rising demand for the SS5 Sprayer since its launch in 2021 and we have now complemented it with some new and exciting companions.

The BP3 Batch Plant is a great example of how MacLean can offer a unique solution to help customers get the best of both worlds with the combination of dry mix material handling and wet mix application quality. Check out this short video to learn more.

Indeed, shotcrete is only as good as the quality of mix and its application, so we've been hard at work developing a near real-time scanning system known as QuickScan. We are confident it is the most advanced and fastest scanning device in the market today. We also have an industry leading chemical dosing system known as ChemSave, which will simultaneously lower your costs of accelerant used per round and shorten your time to re-entry. You can learn more about both of these products here.

Our flagship Bolter product group remains diligently at work creating its own new paradigm shift coming in 2023 with the release of the 985 Abi-Bolter, which blends the most productive and versatile features of our 30+ year history in bolting with the latest in robotic and automation technology. You can get a great teaser video of this new product below.

All of these wonderful product additions from our factory design teams are increasingly calling upon an array of new technologies that 5 years ago were incipient at MacLean. The availability of new digital controls and telemetry packages, drivetrain and chassis options, remote control systems from underground to surface, and an emerging set of autonomous vehicle developments are transforming MacLean products into even more fascinating solutions that are truly world class. Our Advanced Vehicles & Technology team first appeared in these articles 3 years ago and from what started as a relatively small team has now grown to be our single largest group in Engineering with almost 50 people out of our 150 person department.

The MacLean EV Series continues to be a hotbed of development for MacLean with a series of new releases in 2023 that will further build on our existing fleet. Five years ago, we were piloting about 5 BEVs at just a few sites. Now we find ourselves boasting over 50 such vehicles, approaching 250,000 operating hours working in mines under development as well as at producing sites, including some that are more than 10,000 feet deep. With almost two dozen unique vehicle applications, we have broader and deeper BEV experience than any other OEM (underground or above). We've recently placed our 3rd generation battery into production builds with 30% more stored energy and paired it with an impressive onboard / offboard charging option that makes it even more versatile to adopt. I can also proclaim that we've achieved our most paradoxical BEV sale yet: a battery-electric fuel truck that will be used to deliver diesel to other pieces of equipment.

Battery electric vehicles continue to become a larger piece of the solution that the mining industry requires to meet difficult decarbonization targets and to reach deeper ore bodies where diesel engines simply cannot operate without huge ventilation costs. We've been fortunate that Canada has been such an early adopter of this technology. MacLean is now poised to see this expand across the world in much larger numbers.

It only took 49 years and 6 months, but in July of 2022 it was an exciting day when we hosted the Prime Minister to see first hand how MacLean and Canada exemplify this industry shift. Recently, we have seen government incentives rolling out in various ways to promote the development of critical minerals and the adoption of zero-emission vehicles.

Our Diversified division makes up an important part of our MacLean family. Our Municipal Vehicles (MV) and HazPak Environmental products have continued to develop new features and expand our customer base. The MV will be getting some impressive upgrades later this year, for now learn more about the MV here. Our HazPak designs continue to find new markets and new challenges to engage our creative design teams, which build off its existing capabilities that you can learn about here.

Our Engineering department has been steadily growing in all facets over the past year and looking back to my 1st edition article we now boast a team that is nearly 4 times larger!! We continue to consistently improve our skills and competencies in all areas. It has been a great pleasure to see the ways in which we've risen to the challenges from learning to work remotely, transitioning to a more agile framework, increasing our representation of women in engineering, and together harnessing new ideas that power MacLean forward.

I believe MacLean is well set up to continue its tradition of combining application intelligence with high quality products and services delivered to a global market. To the next 50 years and beyond!!