When Bruce Patterson helped bring some of the first Junttan purpose-built piling rigs to Canada roughly 20 years ago, the Finnish machines were entering a new and demanding market.
Some went to work in Alberta’s oil sands. Others would eventually find their way to projects across the country, operating in climates and ground conditions that vary dramatically from region to region – and, in some cases, even within a single jobsite.
At the time, Patterson was running Canadian Pile Driving Equipment (CPDE), the Lacombe, Alta.-based foundation equipment supplier he founded. Over the years, CPDE became closely tied to the Junttan brand in Canada, a relationship that took another step in 2020 when Junttan acquired the company and renamed it Junttan Canada. Patterson stayed on as vice-president of operations. Today, more than 100 Junttan rigs are working across Canada. Junttan’s growth in the Canadian market is one chapter in a much larger story for a company marking its 50th anniversary this year.
Founded in Finland in 1976, Junttan has grown from its Scandinavian roots into a global manufacturer whose equipment is at work in markets around the world. In the early 1980s, the company introduced its purpose-built hydraulic piling rig, designed to improve safety, efficiency and pile driving accuracy over traditional methods. But its evolution has involved more than expanding its reach.
Junttan has continued to develop its equipment around the changing demands of the contractors using it – an approach that has helped shape everything from its hydraulic hammers to its newest drilling, digital and electric equipment.
Built for tough conditions
Patterson isn’t surprised that Junttan equipment has found a foothold in Canada. He sees the company’s Finnish roots as an advantage in a market characterized by remote jobsites, challenging ground conditions and, of course, the cold.
“Junttan is manufactured in Finland, so cold climate is nothing new to them. The rigs have been working in the Far North for many years, not just the Arctic, but all the way to the deserts of Africa. There really aren’t any conditions that Junttan hasn’t seen,” he said.
“Junttan is manufactured in Finland, so cold climate is nothing new to them … There really aren’t any conditions that Junttan hasn’t seen.”
Bruce Patterson, Junttan Canada
For Patterson, succeeding in the Canadian market has required more than equipment suited to the conditions. It has also meant being able to support that equipment wherever it is working. That philosophy predates the Junttan Canada name. Patterson says putting customers first was central to CPDE and remains a priority today, particularly when equipment downtime can quickly become costly on a foundation project.
“Our number one focus is customer service. We have always tried our best to have parts on our shelves and available to our customers that day or the next day,” he said. “Along with the parts is having knowledgeable staff that can troubleshoot and repair the equipment as fast as possible.”
That local presence is also important to Junttan for another reason: it creates a direct line between the contractors using its equipment and the people developing it.
From the field to the factory
Miika Eskelinen, vice-president of sales for Junttan, says the CPDE acquisition fit with a growth strategy the company had established several years earlier: building its own sales and service operations in its major markets.
“By having our own organization in the market, we can ensure that the feedback comes directly to the ‘mothership’ and we can quickly make decisions regarding customer service and product development,” Eskelinen said.
The development of Junttan’s HHx500 hydraulic hammer shows what that feedback loop can look like in practice. Introduced in 2024, the hammer was engineered in response to the needs of a Canadian contractor facing particularly demanding foundation work. The result was the largest hammer Junttan had ever built. Weighing nearly 47,000 kilograms and delivering maximum striking energy of 500 kNm (kilonewton-metres), the HHx500 became part of Junttan’s new generation of HHx hydraulic hammers for driving steel and concrete piles in challenging conditions.
Two crane-suspended HHx500 hammers remain at work on the project they were developed for, Patterson says, while dozens more HHx hammers have since been put to work on projects from British Columbia to Quebec.
Building for what comes next
The HHx series is one example of how Junttan’s equipment has evolved alongside the work contractors are being asked to perform. Eskelinen says changing market needs are also pushing the company into new applications and technologies. That includes equipment designed to give contractors more versatility on site. Junttan’s multipurpose piling rigs can be configured for pile driving as well as full displacement piling (FDP) and continuous flight auger (CFA) drilling, while its variable moment vibratory hammers have expanded the company’s offering for tubular, H-pile and sheet pile installation.
Drilling is another area of growth. Patterson points to the latest version of Junttan’s DR5, a lightweight rig designed for easier mobilization and deeper drilling on a single pass. After its introduction in Europe, the first of the new machines is now headed to Junttan Canada
At the same time, automation, digital tools and machine intelligence are changing what contractors expect from the equipment itself. Junttan’s PM5, introduced in 2025 as the latest in its Evolution series of pile driving rigs, incorporates remote-controlled setup, real-time data processing, pile driving visualization, machine diagnostics and continuous performance feedback.
Sustainability is influencing development as well. Junttan unveiled the PMx2e, billed as the world’s first fully battery-powered electric piling rig, in 2021, followed by the larger PMx4e in 2024. The electric rigs have since gone to work in Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Fifty years after Junttan was founded, the equipment has changed considerably, and so have the markets in which it operates. In Canada, the progression from those first rigs in the oil sands to a permanent sales and service operation – and equipment developed in response to Canadian contractors – reflects the approach that has helped carry Junttan through five decades.