Plaintree tour attracts community leaders

Posted Jan 26, 2012 By Derek Dunn

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EMC News - About 50 business and public sector leaders gathered last Friday for a tour of Plaintree, the Arnprior-based manufacturer with some 90 employees living in the region and projects around the world.

"Plaintree's kind of a complicated story to tell," CEO David Watson told the group Jan. 20. "We specialize in mergers and acquisitions."

Plaintree Systems is a diversified company with proprietary technology and manufacturing capabilities in structural and mechanical design, aerospace and telecommunications. Founded in 1988, the company is comprised of four divisions: Plaintree Wireless, Hypernetics, Triodetic, and Arnprior Fire Trucks, along with a related party - Spotton Corp.

Employees include professional engineers, computer-aided design technicians, certified welders, computer numerical control machinists, laser cutters, painters, and support staff in administration, finance, sales and customer service.

Watson pointed to photos of work the company has done around the world, including an igloo-shaped church in Iqaluit, three 32.5-square metre (350-square foot) domes in British Columbia painted to make the world's largest Canada flag, the award-winning Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, and the caterpillar-shaped Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester.

Triodetic's Bill Vangool explained that the novel designs are based on mechanically joined systems using pipes. While metal has resisted curvature in the past, Plaintree has found a way around it based on pipes.

"It always us to make truly organic, flowing shapes, not just squares," Vangool said.

Triodetic Space Frames is a pioneer in innovative space frame and dome design, with more than 40 years experience and patented technology with a flawless safety record.

Triodetic's world-renowned, captivating and innovative projects include the JFK Library and Museum in Boston, the Las Vegas Convention Centre, the Melbourne Entertainment Centre in Australia, and Toronto's Ontario Place, among many others.

Other technology, developed over hundreds of hours of research, allows building foundations to ebb and flow with changing permafrost. It works in regions with weak soil, too.

The company itself is flexible, also, shifting Spotten's direction from mass produced to high end cylinders. The latter were used at the Trump Tower in Toronto.

Hypernetics is why Plaintree is located in Arnprior, Watson explained.

"And we fell in love with the place," he said. "We don't have the city bureaucracy and taxes to deal with, and there are lots of talented assemblers who are very loyal - with 30-35 years here."

Hypernetics does design, development and manufacturing of innovative high performance electromagnetic devices on airplanes and space crafts. But it was the new fire trucks' component that many came to see.

The company has created a joystick to allow firefighters to remain inside the driver's seat and guide a huge nozzle in virtually ever direction. "We basically build a truck like no other," said Graeme Cross, business development manager, adding their vehicles are well-above the ISO 9000 requirement.

The custom-made and custom-ordered trucks will be off to Simcoe County and elsewhere. It's not all about working with large, heavy materials either. The laboratory division has employees putting together highly detailed sensors and other products, some to within 3/10 of thousandth of an inch.

While vision and planning are key to the leadership, Watson doesn't mind sharing at least one story of dumb luck. He attended an auction where the only item not to see was a powerful laser. Afterward, the auctioneer gave him a price he couldn't refuse.

The laser was brought back to the shop, but with little expectation it could be put to use. Then workers started to find they could do 25 minutes of work in three minutes with it.

"All of a sudden it went from something nobody wanted to it broke down and everybody was 'What do you mean the laser cutter's down?'"

The business side is crucial to allowing for the creative side to succeed, Watson said. He said the company leans more to customized work, but innovation must match application.

"It's no use being the smartest guys in the room and invent something no one wants."

Arnprior Mayor David Reid was among those on the tour. Also an engineer, Reid said he was impressed with the facility, and pipe-fitting technology he referred to as "Lego."

The concept is simple, but what they are able to do with it? I was very impressed with that."

Plaintree has three buildings, with the head office located at the corner of Didak Drive and Harntey Street. It is 41 square metres (135 square feet).

Last year was a good one for Plaintree, with a 21 per cent increase in sales over the previous year and a $641,000 profit before taking into account a non-operating loss due to the decrease in the value of Plaintree's two former buildings.

It was the second tour of the week at the plant, about 25 Greater Arnprior Chamber of Commerce members visited on the morning of Jan. 19.

derek.dunn@metroland.com




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