McAsphalt Industries Ltd., headquartered in Scarborough, Ontario, is a major distributor of asphalt products. Their products are used extensively for road construction. They have approximately 22 terminals throughout Canada and deliver their products by truck, rail and barge.

McAsphalt has their own barge and operates the tug boat that pushes the barge. The barge holds 7,000 metric tones (44,000 barrels) of liquid asphalt. It travels to refineries in Detroit, Quebec City, and Montreal to pick up liquid asphalt. It delivers asphalt to five of their terminals reached by water, traveling on Lake St. Clair, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

Storms on the lakes can produce 30 foot seas, so the barge and all its onboard equipment must be sea worthy and meet requirements of the Canadian Coast Guard and the U.S. Coast Guard.

The company relies on Heatec heaters aboard their barge, as well as at many of their asphalt terminals. All of these heaters feature a helical coil. They heat thermal fluid circulating through serpentine coils immersed in the asphalt to keep it in a liquid state. The heater on the barge has an output of 10 million Btu/hour and maintains the asphalt at about 149 degrees C (300 degrees F). Heaters at their terminals have outputs ranging from up to 10 million Btu/hour and maintain the asphalt at temperatures of 160 degrees C (320 degrees F) and above.

Heatec helical coil heaters are rugged, due mainly to the fact that Heatec manufactures its own helical coils. The coils meet ASME code, an important consideration for safety and long heater life. Most Heatec heaters last 20 years or longer. Several of Heatec heaters at McAsphalt have been in operation since early 1987 and are still going strong.