About KBIM · Since 1976
KB Industrial Mechanics Ltd. is Western Canada's largest all-millwright portable industrial machining company — a family-owned shop built on precision iron, field-proven process, and the belief that millwrights do this work best when millwrights are the ones running the job.
Our roots
Every story about KBIM begins with one man, one shift, and one job that refused to be solved the easy way.
Stan Buller apprenticed as a millwright in Alberta's power generation sector in the early 1970s. By the late 70s he was working on steam turbines and coal plants across the province — heavy, precise, consequential iron. In 1976 he founded KB Industrial Mechanics Ltd. on a principle that still runs the company today: a millwright's work is measured in thousandths of an inch, and the only acceptable answer is the right one.
The early years were spent doing what nobody else would do, the way nobody else would do it. When a plant needed a hydrogen seal face machined on-site — a job most shops would pull the unit for and send to a lathe two provinces away — Stan designed a portable grinder, built it, and did the work on the deck. The seal ran. The plant kept making power. The story spread.
Turn us loose and let us do what we're good at. That's when the work speaks for itself.— Company philosophy, KBIM field operations
By the 1990s KBIM was computerizing its drawings, inspection records, and job tracking before most of its clients were — and it was the clients, not the other way around, who ended up asking KBIM to show them the system. The shop grew, the rolling stock grew, the crew grew, but the DNA never changed: millwrights doing millwright work, running millwright processes, with millwright discipline, on millwright schedules.
Today Ursula, Karl, and Cliff carry the company into its second half-century. Stan still walks the shop. The grinders still roll out the door at 2 a.m. when a plant calls. And the answer is still the same as it was on day one — done right, on time, on spec.
The long road
1976
Stan Buller starts KB Industrial Mechanics Ltd. in Alberta, serving power gen and heavy industry.
1980s
Design-and-build of an on-site hydrogen seal face grinder — the moment portable machining became a signature.
1990s
Computerized drawings, records, and job tracking before most operators had it — clients asked us to teach them.
2006
KBIM profiled in Alberta Wildcatter for redefining on-site industrial machining.
2010s
Signature life-extension shutdown: 350 MW unit back on the grid 14 days ahead of worst-case scenario.
Today
Family-run. Millwright-only. 24/7 industrial response across Western Canada.
Leadership
Every leader at KBIM started in the trade, on the tools, on a night shift somewhere. That's not a marketing line — it's how the company was designed.
Started the company in 1976. Still the technical conscience of the shop — the one who designed the portable grinder that put KBIM on the map, and the one who signs off on the jobs that can't fail.
Founding Partner
Runs the business side of KBIM with the same discipline the crew runs the field side. Client relationships, contracting, finance, and the quiet architecture that lets the millwrights do millwright work.
Principal
Second-generation millwright. Plans the shutdowns, runs the turnarounds, and is usually the voice on the other end of the 2 a.m. dispatch call. Deep hands-on experience across power gen, oil & gas, and heavy industrial.
Operations
Oversees the fabrication shop, portable machining fleet, and tooling program. The person who makes sure the right grinder, the right boring bar, and the right crew go out the door before the truck leaves the yard.
Shop LeadWhat we believe
These aren't posters on a wall. They're why a plant manager calls KBIM instead of the shop down the road — and why the same plant manager calls us back.
KBIM is not a mechanical contractor with a millwright division. It is a millwright company, owned and run by millwrights, employing millwrights. The difference shows up in every decision — who we hire, how we plan, what we refuse to sub out, and how the job runs when something on the unit doesn't match the drawing.
The portable hydrogen seal face grinder wasn't bought from a catalogue — it was designed, built, and proven in the field by Karl himself. That engineering instinct has never left the company. When a job needs a purpose-built fixture, a custom boring bar, or a machining solution nobody's tried on that unit before, that's the work we like best.
Our clients don't hire us to be micromanaged. They hire us because they know that once the scope is handed over, the crew, the planning, the process, and the outcome are ours to deliver — and that we'd rather walk away from a job than hand one back unfinished. "Turn us loose and let us do what we're good at" isn't swagger. It's the operating model.
In heavy industry, every day a unit is offline has a number attached to it. A six-figure number, most days. Nine figures on a bad day. That number is why we over-plan, over-staff, pre-stage tooling, and run nights and weekends when that's what the schedule needs. When KBIM commits to a window, the window is the contract.
Proof of work
When a 350 MW generating unit came into a major life-extension shutdown with an original outage estimate pushing past two months of worst-case, KBIM was handed the scope. The crew delivered the unit back to the operator in 51 days — two full weeks ahead of the worst-case plan — with zero lost-time incidents and every inspection signed off on the first walk.
51d
Total shutdown duration
−14d
Ahead of worst-case plan
70
Millwrights on-site at peak
$13.4M
Est. upside vs. worst-case
Representative project figures. Every turnaround is different — but the playbook that got this one back early is the same one that goes out on every call.
Who calls us
KBIM has been a trusted service partner to some of Western Canada's largest power, energy, and heavy-industry operators. Selected clients:
Sectors we serve
