In the 1980’s Wayne King conceived and developed a revolutionary new way to handle the sand and sludge that builds up in heavy oil tanks.

With help, he built the very first Grithog machine. The technology found a foothold, and has become a relied-upon fixture of the heavy oil industry.

Since the summer of 1997, Grithog Sand Control Systems Ltd. has been operating what is called the “Grit Removal System” for heavy oil sand movement. This is a whole-solution system that allows for the easy removal of sludge from tanks. Grithog Sand Control has since developed other sludge and sand removal solutions, such as the Penetrator system and the Grit Pumper Truck.

Right from the beginning, Wayne has worked to ensure that only quality components are used in the fabrication of equipment for his company. This desire brought about the birth of Grit Industries Inc. in 1998. Grit Industries is a fabrication and development company whose sole purpose was originally to manufacture the equipment needed by Grithog Sand Control Systems Ltd. It has since grown to be the manufacturer of Cold Weather and A-Fire equipment, and has become a sough-after facility for external clients to use in designing and building their own custom equipment. Grit Industries Inc. also puts their manufacturing capabilities to work fabricating the components for the G55 Secondary Containment system. The team at Grit specifically engineered this containment system for the oil industry, but it’s solid design and dependable quality has seen it used in all manners of secondary containment applications.

The Cold Weather line of natural gas dryline heaters has it roots in another of Wayne King’s innovative ideas. He was looking for a way to heat oil tanks using their own vented methane gas. His quest rewarded Grit Industries with the Heat Driven Loop technology. While the technology is a solid solution for oil tank heating, he discovered, with the help from SaskEnergy and the Saskatchewan Research Council, that the technology had incredible potential in heating natural gas lines.

A-Fire, the other major division of Grit Industries Inc., was in fact a strategic acquisition. Originally called A-Fire Holdings Ltd., the division was operating as a company since 1985, and was bought up by Grit in 2002. It was an attractive addition to the Grit group, as it was already a known and respected name in the combustion and heating world. The division has grown since the acquisition, and now includes manufacturing facilities for its own burner system product line, as well as attaining distributorships for major companies like Titan Logix Corp., Eclipse Combustion, Danfoss, and Kimray.

Grit has recently been coming up with new items to create, products such as boat docks, privacy fencing, metal posts and rails. Their latest, and strongest offering, is a portable storage solution known as ManHuts. These are carefully engineered, solid, and durable portable storage sheds that customers have come to depend on for cabin storage solutions, ATV sheds, and workspaces.