 I can't even find a mention of them on the internet now, but in 1977 they were a very progressive company doing all sorts of hydraulic testing. A large laboratory with vast water tanks, that seemed a little scary at the time. The models I built for them were, scaled down, water gates. They were used to control the flow of water, through the tunnels, at hydro-electric dam facilities. When I was first asked to build one, and the specifications were explained to me, I wanted to turn round and run. The specs were so critical, with regard to accuracy of size, weight, and stability. It would appear that when a gate, holding back water under pressure, is raised to allow the water to flow, the pressure is so great, that the gate wants to bounce. If it is not checked, the frequency of the bounce increases quickly, and the gate will totally destroy itself. That was the purpose of these labs. There task was to design the gate to prevent this bounce .... in miniature .... and that's where the models came in. I had to weigh every piece of metal, control size and thickness to thousandths of an inch, and manufacture these gates, with pressure transducers installed, along the bottom edges. They would then be tested in the large water tanks, and read pressures electronically through the transducers. Fascinating work, and I watched many tests, and made numerous changes until perfect readings were achieved. We also custom made measuring instruments for them like various pitot tubes and the like.
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Western Canada Hydraulics Port Coquitlam - BC
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