Archives > 2007 > September 2007 > New Fire Products At IAFC

September 2007

New Fire Products At IAFC

By Ed Ballam and Lyn Bixby

Fire Rescue International, the official show of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, featured hundreds of exhibitors late last month, showing everything from boots and helmets, to extrication tools and rescue equipment to fire pumps and foam systems to a variety of apparatus.

The massive Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta was filled with booths, and Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment visited many of them to learn what’s new.

Many attendees anticipated seeing the latest compliant self-contained breathing apparatus. The exhibition hall opened just one week before the Aug. 31 deadline for SCBA manufacturers to meet tough, new National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards. The companies had their new units on display at the show, but none had completed the rigorous series of tests required for NFPA certification.

At the booth of Scott Health & Safety, the leading SCBA manufacturer, the staff said one question was heard over and over: Do you have certification yet? Scott representatives said they were optimistic their unit would finish the testing process soon – perhaps within days – because the final test for protection from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) contamination was underway.

Tom Korb, the company’s fire service marketing manager, said Scott had started “ramping up” for production of its new SCBA, which is called the Air-Pak 75 – a reminder that the company marked its 75th anniversary this year.

SCBA: A Sense Of Urgency

There was a sense of urgency among SCBA manufacturers at the show because without certification, they would not be able to deliver their products with NFPA-compliant labels after Aug. 31, creating production disruptions. The urgency was also being felt at many fire departments that have plans to buy the new units with federal Fire Act grant funding that was approved last year. The grants carry a one-year time limit for spending the money.

A number of fire departments applied for extensions beyond the one-year limit, and some have had their requests denied by officials at the federal Department of Homeland Security, according to Korb.

Mine Safety Appliances (MSA) had its new FireHawk M7 SCBA on display at the show and was touting its ICM TxR accountability system for fireground safety and management.  The system transmits two-way evacuation signals, low-pressure and personal alert safety system (PASS) alarms and remaining air time for all SCBA, enabling communication with incident command.

MSA also introduced a lower-priced thermal-imaging camera, the Evolution 5600, which the company said has “high resolution, excellent picture quality, and ergonomic design, all at a price point that every fire department can afford.”

The news at the Survivair SCBA booth was that the manufacturer, the Bacou-Dalloz Fire Safety Group, had changed its name to Sperian Fire and was dropping the Survivair brand name that had existed for 45 years.

“The timing is very fortuitous,” said Bill Sokol, Sperian Fire’s vice president of strategic marketing. “Our name is being changed at the same time we are launching a whole new platform.”

The Sperian Fire Warrior SCBA is a complete redesign of the former Survivair unit, according to Steve Weinstein, the company’s SCBA senior product manager. He said Sperian conducted an SCBA study that included in-depth interviews with firefighters from five departments and extensive analysis of competing units.

Air Tank Refilling Systems

“The days of engineer-driven products are over,” he declared. “To a great extent our new unit was designed by firefighters, and the message was clear: make it simple.”

At Bauer Compressors Inc., a business dedicated to manufacturing SCBA and dive air tank refilling systems, three new products were on the floor at the show.

Bauer’s Maxi Verticus was painted in a bright yellow, rather than the company’s more traditional blue and off-white, to attract attention at the show, but it didn’t need flashy paint to do that.

Bill Dickson, national sales manager for Bauer, explained the new Maxi Verticus represents a quantum leap for the company with a new touch screen control panel that eliminates all pressure gauges on the control panel, monitoring pressure automatically.

Tool Innovations

“This touch screen makes refilling bottles very simple,” Dickson said while demonstrating it. He said the panel also monitors temperatures and oil in the compressor, and the information is displayed on an LCD screen in real time.

Also on display at Bauer was the Vertecon compressor and a oxygen tank refilling station. The Vertecon, Dickson explained, offers Bauer’s quality at an affordable price and attractive package, while the new O2 fill station is breaking ground in a brand new market for the company.

“We found some departments have the need for both [breathing air and an O2 fill station] and rather than having them refill oxygen bottles on a bench, or some place equally unsafe, we decided to give departments an oxygen tank refilling station,” he said.

A number of tool companies were promoting innovations at the show.

At the Champion Rescue Tools booth, President Alan Discount talked about new special application attachments for the company’s SC11 – “The Beast Multi Tool – which was introduced at the beginning of the year and billed as the industry’s most versatile and powerful. Cutting heads can be changed quickly by pulling three tethered pins and reinserting them.

“While everyone else is focusing on hoses,” Discount said, “we’re focusing on the function of the tool and what it can do with new cars.”

At Res-Q-Jack, Inc., which makes lifting struts for stabilization, extrication and rescue applications, owner John Meier was also touting versatility in showing a prototype of a product that was so new it had not been priced or named yet – an aluminum strut with a detachable steel jack and retractable strap.

It is much lighter than Res-Q-Jack’s other steel struts, Meier said, and, “It’s what’s new for 2008.”

A competing company in the vehicle-extrication field, Rescue 24, Inc., has made its struts of light-weight composite material since 2005, and its system uses a detachable jack. Rescue 24 President Tim O’Connell promised a new innovation in his company’s lineup this fall.

A Hurst Trailer

An assortment of rescue products from other manufacturers were on display at the show too, including a new trailer by Hurst Jaws of Life for tactical rescue operations and a pump from Holmatro that just days prior had received Underwriters Laboratories listing for NFPA 1936 compliance.

Britt Hawkins, marketing communications specialist for Hurst Jaws of Life, said the 20-foot tandem-axle trailer represented a first for the company. It was on display outside the air-conditioned FRI exhibition hall where temperatures were near 100 degrees.

Holmatro And Foster

“This is the first time we’ve offered anything like this – all the tools needed for technical rescues, from extrication tools, cutters, spreaders, rams to stabilizers and air bags,” Hawkins said, showing off an array of Hurst products neatly arranged and stored in the trailer. “This is our first one, and we’re still tweaking it a little. Our objective is to build what the customers want in the size trailer they want.”

Fran Dunigan, Holmatro’s marketing manager, showed off the company’s DPU 31 compact duo pump. The unit, powered by a Honda gasoline engine, is designed to provide hydraulic power for up to two of the company’s tools simultaneously.

“We just got notification of NFPA compliance from UL,” Dunigan said. “We’re very pleased about that.”

Holmatro tools were also found on a one-of-a-kind compact mini rescue vehicle unveiled at the show by Foster Rescue Products, built on a Chinese-made Auto One cab and chassis with an overall length of 12 feet, a width of 5 feet and a height of 6 feet.

“This is a first response rig,” said Foster Rescue President Bruce Foster. “We built this unit without having a market for it, but the response here has been overwhelming.”

He said the new product is well suited for use in densely populated areas, or large events like concerts, sporting venues and fairs as it can maneuver in tight places and has a governed speed of 25 miles per hour.

The unit, which has a 2,500-pound payload, can be customized to a variety of configurations. The one on display was powered by a 55 hp engine with a 5-speed manual transmission and had a 16,000-watt generator, a 20-gallon compressed air foam system and a Will-Burt light tower.

A distinctive feature of the unit is its Plastisol rear body made of glass fiber reinforced polyester composite. Foster said the body material would allow him to customize the mini apparatus to the customer’s needs. One attendee told Foster he liked the concept for a hazmat response vehicle in a large factory, and Foster said the body material would allow him to produce it.

A Danko Rescue

Danko Emergency Equipment featured a medium-duty rescue built on a 2007 GMC 5500 cab and chassis, also featuring a Plastisol body with a three-occupant crew seating area and nine body compartments.

“This is a first for us,” said Dan Kreikemeier, president and CEO of Danko.

A few aisles away, Bill Hagerty, director of communications for Total Fire Group, had several new innovations in turnout gear on display.

One of those products was its Morning Pride NFPA-compliant EZ Flips, eye production that fits on the company’s traditional and modern style helmets.

“This product has a lot of our competitors scratching their heads,” Hagerty said. “They can’t figure out how we did it. We’ve got compliant eye protection in an “ez-flip” configuration, and nobody else does.”

Also new from Total Fire Group’s Ranger Footwear line were NFPA 1971 2007 edition-compliant women’s and men’s Shoe-Fit bunker firefighting boots and 10-inch Defender Speed-Zip leather boots.

At another booth, SuperVac Manufacturing showed up with two ventilation saws, a new market for the company widely known for its high-quality ventilation fans of all sizes.

“It’s a natural extension of our business,” said Roger Weinmeister, vice president of SuperVac.

The saws, one a chainsaw-type device and the other a cutoff saw with a circular diamond blade, are both powered by German-made Dolmar engines and feature a host of SuperVac innovations, including a proprietary Tiger Tooth diamond blade that cuts virtually anything.

SVI Heavy Rescue

“If your department is like mine, you’re always having to change blades depending on what you’re cutting,” he said. “But with our blade you don’t have to change it. You can cut concrete or steel without changing anything.” He also pointed out a blade cooling line that can be connected to an ordinary garden hose during cutting.

The company is packaging saw kits in aluminum tread plate coffin-style boxes made by SuperVac’s sister company SVI Trucks, according to Weinmeister, who is president of SVI.

Directly across the aisle from SuperVac was a loaded rescue vehicle built by SVI. Bob Sorensen, vice president of SVI, said the truck was built for the Sable Altura Fire Department, Aurora, Colo.

“The department had a tragic [trench collapse] accident in its community, and it didn’t have all the proper equipment to handle the call,” Sorensen said, noting that the victim died. “From there, the department decided to get a fully-equipped heavy rescue vehicle.”

The unit is built on a Spartan Diamond chassis and has a Waterous 250 gpm pump with a Class B foam system and more than $150,000 worth of rescue equipment that the department sent to SVI for mounting.

Sorensen said his company used fiberglass “angle-iron” to build compartments on the rollout shelves and tool boards to protect the tools from rubbing against the bare metal, damaging the tool finish and, perhaps more. It was the first time SVI had used the material in its tool mounting system.

As usual, the booth space occupied by Hale Products was gleaming with pumps and related equipment.

Jon Moore, Hale’s national sales manager, pointed out two of the company’s newest products, its MBP 750 gpm pump with a helical pto gearbox.

“It makes for a very quiet pump,” Moore said, pointing out that the same technology that went into the MBP box was put into Hale’s K gear box used on its larger (2,250 gpm) Qmax pumps.

“It was designed for higher horsepower engines, from 430 hp on up to 550 hp, and is made for long runs,” Moore said. “It holds up for years.”

New Pump From Darley

W.S. Darley & Company was also displaying a new pump, a line it acquired in July when Darley bought Ohler Machinery Company.

Paul C. Darley, president and chief operating officer, said the purchase of the Ohler pump company, based in Janesville, Iowa, was “a nice fit” with the Darley company.

“They just got a contract with the U.S. Marine Corps for 2,300 pumps, valued at over $10 million,” Darley said, noting that the 150 gpm, self-priming pumps will be used mostly for transferring potable water for troops, primarily in Iraq.

He said his company will be looking at applications for the Ohler pumps in other markets Darley serves, including the fire service.

FoamPro broke new ground at the FRI show with the introduction of its Rapid Deployment Foam System, a flatbed trailer-mounted unit designed to help department flow large quantities of Class B foam for industrial applications.

Reviewing the device under the hot Atlanta sun in an outside exhibit, FoamPro Business Development Manager Jim Weigle declared, “This will revolutionize foam applications. It’s made for large Class B flammable liquids incidents, especially with the expanding ethanol threat.”

The unit, which has a 155 hp four-cylinder John Deere engine powering a 300 gpm Edwards rotary gear concentrate pump, uses FoamPro’s AccuMax line controls for injecting foam concentrate into the fire flow lines.

Weigle said the unit, which is made almost exclusively of stainless steel, when fed by fire pumpers, is capable of flowing up to 30,000 gpm at 1 percent concentrate, 10,000 gpm at 3 percent and 5,000 gpm at 6 percent.

“And we can do that with the touch of a button,” he said.

Kussmaul Electronics Company introduced a new smart apparatus battery charger at the show, called Auto Charge SD, with the letters representing self diagnostic.

Crimson And FRC

“If there’s a problem with the charger or the battery, this charger will flash codes, like cars do, to let you know what’s wrong,” said Kussmaul Vice President Tom Nugent. If the charge is too high or too low, he said visible lights on the front panel of the apparatus-mounted charger will flash. It also displays warnings for high temperature, high resistance, which might be found on shorted wires, as well as the amount of amperes and volts the battery is getting while being charged.

Also making a debut in Atlanta was a custom-designed pump control panel made by Fire Research Corp. (FRC) for Crimson Fire for use on its apparatus.

Toh Meng, vice president of electrical engineering for FRC, said Crimson Fire asked his company to develop the compact panel, called Control XT.

“They wanted it to be very easy to install, reliable and look very high tech,” Meng said, noting the panel incorporates the throttle, water and foam tank level monitors, master pressure gages, the pressure governor and primer, as well as engine monitoring functions, such as rpm, oil pressure, and temperature. “It even has a clock because not everyone has a watch on a fire scene.”

All those components fit in a footprint of approximately 15 by 11 inches.

“After listening to our dealers and to fire departments, we saw the value in creating a cleaner, simpler control layout,” said Crimson Fire President Jim Salmi.

Crimson Fire plans to make Control XT standard on its apparatus this fall, but it will also offer other panel options.

Spartan’s Furion

Crimson Fire’s sister company, Spartan Chassis, also made news at the show with the introduction of a new cab and chassis called the Furion, designed to bridge the market between custom and commercial vehicles, according to Spartan Chassis President Richard Schalter.

“The Furion is a purpose built cab and chassis built for use as an emergency fire and rescue vehicle,” Schalter said during a press event debuting the vehicle. “We really wanted to give the fire chiefs an option between our higher end cabs and chassis, like the Gladiator, and the strictly commercial cabs and chassis.”

The new cab, made from stamped galvanized steel like many commercial cabs, is a departure from Spartan Chassis normal offerings of highly-customizable aluminum apparatus, built one at a time.

Schalter said the frame and suspension components will remain same throughout the Spartan Chassis line, from the Gladiator on the high end through the Metro Star line and to the entry level Furion line.

A Unique Ferrara Aerial

“We had a lot of feedback from customers and dealers as we designed and built the prototypes for the Furion,” Schalter said. “There are going to have to be some tradeoffs between what people are used to from Spartan and what we can offer with the Furion, which is designed for the price conscious department.”

Several apparatus builders were on hand with the latest pumper, rescue and aerial designs.

Ferrara Fire Apparatus had a unique 85-foot mid-mount aerial platform on the show floor, destined for the Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department on Long Island, N.Y.

It’s a five-section ladder designed to reduce the overall length of the apparatus for improved deployment in congested areas, according to Joel Domangue, Ferrara’s aerial sales and product manager.

“It’s going into an older fire station on Long Island, and it was designed to keep it as low profile and compact as possible,” Domangue said. “It’s only 10 foot, 6 inches tall and just a tad over 43 feet long.”

According to Domangue, the tip load and flow rates for the prototype aerial were not completed by the time of the show, but he said: “I guarantee it will be the strongest in its class.”

A few rows down the show floor, Marion Body Works had a demonstrator aluminum heavy rescue on display that it had recently sold to a department which had not yet taken delivery of the $234,999 apparatus. It is called the Maximizer.

One of the most unique features is a Harrison 20,000-watt hydraulic generator mounted in the frame rails with an access door in the wheel-well area.

“It’s the first time Harrison has ever done anything like this,” said Kevin Barkow, Marion’s sales specialist/parts administrator. He called it a “pre-engineered truck,” meaning the price is a little less.

“It allows fire departments to get a Marion, but not have the cost involved with a fully customized unit,” he said. “We think of this as a big tool box on wheels.”

Another new apparatus on the show floor was a 2007 KME Challenger custom pumper on KME’s Predator Panther cab and chassis.

“This one has full 29-inch deep compartments all the way around,” said Phil Gerace, KME’s director of sales and marketing. “We think it’s a good custom package for not a lot of money.”

He said the unit, with a 2,000 gpm Hale pump, a six-occupant cab and chassis and a 425 hp engine cost $273,000.

Prominent at E-ONE’s booth was a Comms-ONE SUV Communications system vehicle, built on a Chevrolet Suburban cab and chassis. The unit, which cost approximately $300,000, is a Federal Signal Codespear-enabled vehicle that provides responders with seamless emergency communications, according to literature provided by the maker. It is designed to provide access to voice, video and data in support of incident command and communications when critical infrastructure is unavailable because of damage or other reasons.

Its most prominent feature is a Tactical IP Satellite system roof-mounted TracStar satellite antenna, which is nearly 3 feet in diameter.

At another booth, a new name was announced in connection with a product that has been around for 30 years: The Opticom traffic signal priority control system, formerly made by 3M, has been sold to a new company, Global Traffic Technologies of St. Paul, Minn.

GTT President Rick Sachse, who was with 3M for 25 years, said the new company has a number of former 3M employees. He said 3M executives decided to sell the Opticom business because it did not fit with their strategic objectives.

The Opticom system was designed to reduce fire and emergency vehicle response times and accidents by controlling traffic flow at intersections with traffic signals. GTT makes two Opticom systems, one that is activated with infrared transmissions and another that uses a global positioning system (GPS) technology.