By Ray Van Gunten

Fire Apparatus Manufacturers’ Association (FAMA) member companies lead the industry in the use of roll-up doors for vehicle compartment access. The use of roll-up doors began more than 30 years ago when the roll-up door idea and product were brought over from England.

Nearly 70 percent of the fire and emergency vehicles produced today use this technology. The main advantages roll-up doors have over swing-out doors include eliminating potential for damage when leaving a station with a high side door open; easier compartment access; safer environment for both the operator and the vehicle; easier and quicker maintenance and repair; and, in most cases, lower overall costs for the vehicle manufacturers. This article will look at these advantages along with new safety and security features that were not available when roll-up doors were first introduced.

Compartment Access

It is much easier to access a vehicle compartment that has a roll-up door when you are at a fire or accident scene and space is limited. Once the compartment is open, it can be left open with no fear of another vehicle pulling beside and clipping the door. Compartment design also allows equipment to be removed more easily because there is no large lip on the bottom or the sides of the compartments. Granted, you have to allow for the head room required by the door coil but, in most cases, this is less than the wasted space on the bottom and sides required by swing-out doors.

Operator and Vehicle Safety

Roll-up doors allow operators to stay closer to the vehicle when accessing compartments. One does not have to step back to open it, whereas a swing-out door can push the operator into the path of another vehicle or force the operator back if the wind catches the door. If a swing-out door is left open, there is a chance that it could be clipped off by another vehicle or, in some cases, actually cause damage itself.

Maintenance and Repair

While roll-up doors are not maintenance-free, their maintenance is fairly simple and should be accomplished as follows.

• Wash the exterior of the door. Do not pressure wash the doors because it tends to push the dirt back past the seals and into the curl or ball and socket between each slat. Dirt pushed back into this area can cause the seals to deteriorate faster and the joint to bind. When washing the doors, use water pressure similar to that of your garden hose at home and spray on an angle instead of straight on. This will prevent the water from penetrating the slat seals and clean the dirt from between slats.
• In dusty and salty environments, keep the track areas clear and lubricated. To remove dirt and grime from the track area, use a rag and something that can break down grease, grime, and other road dirt. Use brake cleaner when the tracks are really bad. After the tracks are clean, use a silicon-based lubricant and spray into the tracks. Never use grease or any other lubricant that is going to collect dirt when the vehicle is operational.
• On a lesser frequency, remove and clean the tracks while at the same time cleaning the dirt and grime from the end clips at the end of each slat of the door. To take the tracks off, remove the fasteners. If lights are attached to the tracks, be careful not to damage the wires to the lights. Once you remove the side tracks, pull the door down to the bottom of the opening; be careful not to pull the door down too far and cause it to jump off the rollers and hang from only the counterbalance. If this does happen, the door will have to be fed back over the wheels when cleaned and ready to reinstall the tracks

By Chris Mc Loone

As we prepared for FDIC International 2016, the usual product releases started to come in with greater frequency as the show got closer and closer until we reached the weekend before.

Some companies teased through ads that they’d be using the conference and exhibition to introduce something new, and others told us specifically what they were going to bring to market but politely asked us to wait until the show for the reveals. I spend a lot of time traversing the show floor, both in the Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indiana Convention Center. I put a lot of miles on my shoes while out in Indy, but this year those miles were a little slower.

I speak with many vendors-as many as I can-and usually the conversation comes around to me asking, “How has the show been?” FDIC International always draws a crowd. There isn’t a conference and exhibition in North America bigger than this event. But, still, exhibitors were ecstatic about the traffic this year. My travel across the show floor was a bit slower this year as I worked through the crowds.

Leading up to FDIC International 2016, one of the press releases that rolled in was the announcement that REV Group acquired KME. There was understandable buzz around the floor about this. The news was so new, it really wasn’t feasible that anyone would know if the acquisition would change a lot for KME folks. This wasn’t the only recent merger/acquisition. Weeks before the show, Task Force Tips announced that it acquired AMKUS Rescue Systems, and Firequip had recently announced that it acquired All-American Hose.

This year, 20 scholarship award winners attended the show. Honeywell and DuPont awarded the scholarships to 20 attendees, who were nominated by their peers-an excellent example of how there is no dividing line between the exhibit and education components of the show. Fire industry suppliers are very active on the education side of FDIC International.

One example is Scott Safety. This company provides hundreds of SCBA yearly for use at hands-on training (HOT) evolutions. HOT sites are also where Scott Safety and other companies introduce concepts and new products for real-time feedback from end users. It was at one HOT site that I had a chance to demo the new Scott Sight SCBA face piece with integrated in-mask thermal imaging capabilities. Scott Safety representatives were traveling the HOT sites with the face piece to get firefighter impressions of the new product. Not meant to replace a handheld thermal imaging camera (TIC), the face piece has a TIC on the exterior with an in-mask screen.

Scott wasn’t the only SCBA company to bring thermal imaging associated with SCBA to market. MSA introduced its G1 SCBA with integrated TIC at the show. MSA introduced the concept at FDIC International 2015, and a year later, the units are available for preorder.

Thermal imaging innovations weren’t only found on SCBA. FLIR introduced two new handheld TICs, a TIC that is mountable to aerial devices (one was mounted on a KME rear-mount platform), and new thermal imaging drone packages. W.S. Darley & Company introduced the InstantEye UAV, the only all-weather UAV on the market, and it also provides thermal imaging capabilities.

Ladder trucks had a lot going on this year. E-ONE introduced the addition of a rear-mount platform to its steel aerial line as well as new ladder controls; Smeal introduced newly upgraded Snorkel and Squrt products; Rosenbauer showed its new midmount 75-foot aerial on a single axle and a new articulated platform; Sutphen unveiled its first ever rear-mount aerial; and Pierce announced three new configurations for its Ascendant 107-foot aerial,

By Chris Mc Loone

As we prepared for FDIC International 2016, the usual product releases started to come in with greater frequency as the show got closer and closer until we reached the weekend before.

Some companies teased through ads that they’d be using the conference and exhibition to introduce something new, and others told us specifically what they were going to bring to market but politely asked us to wait until the show for the reveals. I spend a lot of time traversing the show floor, both in the Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indiana Convention Center. I put a lot of miles on my shoes while out in Indy, but this year those miles were a little slower.

I speak with many vendors-as many as I can-and usually the conversation comes around to me asking, “How has the show been?” FDIC International always draws a crowd. There isn’t a conference and exhibition in North America bigger than this event. But, still, exhibitors were ecstatic about the traffic this year. My travel across the show floor was a bit slower this year as I worked through the crowds.

Leading up to FDIC International 2016, one of the press releases that rolled in was the announcement that REV Group acquired KME. There was understandable buzz around the floor about this. The news was so new, it really wasn’t feasible that anyone would know if the acquisition would change a lot for KME folks. This wasn’t the only recent merger/acquisition. Weeks before the show, Task Force Tips announced that it acquired AMKUS Rescue Systems, and Firequip had recently announced that it acquired All-American Hose.

This year, 20 scholarship award winners attended the show. Honeywell and DuPont awarded the scholarships to 20 attendees, who were nominated by their peers-an excellent example of how there is no dividing line between the exhibit and education components of the show. Fire industry suppliers are very active on the education side of FDIC International.

One example is Scott Safety. This company provides hundreds of SCBA yearly for use at hands-on training (HOT) evolutions. HOT sites are also where Scott Safety and other companies introduce concepts and new products for real-time feedback from end users. It was at one HOT site that I had a chance to demo the new Scott Sight SCBA face piece with integrated in-mask thermal imaging capabilities. Scott Safety representatives were traveling the HOT sites with the face piece to get firefighter impressions of the new product. Not meant to replace a handheld thermal imaging camera (TIC), the face piece has a TIC on the exterior with an in-mask screen.

Scott wasn’t the only SCBA company to bring thermal imaging associated with SCBA to market. MSA introduced its G1 SCBA with integrated TIC at the show. MSA introduced the concept at FDIC International 2015, and a year later, the units are available for preorder.

Thermal imaging innovations weren’t only found on SCBA. FLIR introduced two new handheld TICs, a TIC that is mountable to aerial devices (one was mounted on a KME rear-mount platform), and new thermal imaging drone packages. W.S. Darley & Company introduced the InstantEye UAV, the only all-weather UAV on the market, and it also provides thermal imaging capabilities.

Ladder trucks had a lot going on this year. E-ONE introduced the addition of a rear-mount platform to its steel aerial line as well as new ladder controls; Smeal introduced newly upgraded Snorkel and Squrt products; Rosenbauer showed its new midmount 75-foot aerial on a single axle and a new articulated platform; Sutphen unveiled its first ever rear-mount aerial; and Pierce announced three new configurations for its Ascendant 107-foot aerial,

By Chris Mc Loone

As we prepared for FDIC International 2016, the usual product releases started to come in with greater frequency as the show got closer and closer until we reached the weekend before.

Some companies teased through ads that they’d be using the conference and exhibition to introduce something new, and others told us specifically what they were going to bring to market but politely asked us to wait until the show for the reveals. I spend a lot of time traversing the show floor, both in the Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indiana Convention Center. I put a lot of miles on my shoes while out in Indy, but this year those miles were a little slower.

I speak with many vendors-as many as I can-and usually the conversation comes around to me asking, “How has the show been?” FDIC International always draws a crowd. There isn’t a conference and exhibition in North America bigger than this event. But, still, exhibitors were ecstatic about the traffic this year. My travel across the show floor was a bit slower this year as I worked through the crowds.

Leading up to FDIC International 2016, one of the press releases that rolled in was the announcement that REV Group acquired KME. There was understandable buzz around the floor about this. The news was so new, it really wasn’t feasible that anyone would know if the acquisition would change a lot for KME folks. This wasn’t the only recent merger/acquisition. Weeks before the show, Task Force Tips announced that it acquired AMKUS Rescue Systems, and Firequip had recently announced that it acquired All-American Hose.

This year, 20 scholarship award winners attended the show. Honeywell and DuPont awarded the scholarships to 20 attendees, who were nominated by their peers-an excellent example of how there is no dividing line between the exhibit and education components of the show. Fire industry suppliers are very active on the education side of FDIC International.

One example is Scott Safety. This company provides hundreds of SCBA yearly for use at hands-on training (HOT) evolutions. HOT sites are also where Scott Safety and other companies introduce concepts and new products for real-time feedback from end users. It was at one HOT site that I had a chance to demo the new Scott Sight SCBA face piece with integrated in-mask thermal imaging capabilities. Scott Safety representatives were traveling the HOT sites with the face piece to get firefighter impressions of the new product. Not meant to replace a handheld thermal imaging camera (TIC), the face piece has a TIC on the exterior with an in-mask screen.

Scott wasn’t the only SCBA company to bring thermal imaging associated with SCBA to market. MSA introduced its G1 SCBA with integrated TIC at the show. MSA introduced the concept at FDIC International 2015, and a year later, the units are available for preorder.

Thermal imaging innovations weren’t only found on SCBA. FLIR introduced two new handheld TICs, a TIC that is mountable to aerial devices (one was mounted on a KME rear-mount platform), and new thermal imaging drone packages. W.S. Darley & Company introduced the InstantEye UAV, the only all-weather UAV on the market, and it also provides thermal imaging capabilities.

Ladder trucks had a lot going on this year. E-ONE introduced the addition of a rear-mount platform to its steel aerial line as well as new ladder controls; Smeal introduced newly upgraded Snorkel and Squrt products; Rosenbauer showed its new midmount 75-foot aerial on a single axle and a new articulated platform; Sutphen unveiled its first ever rear-mount aerial; and Pierce announced three new configurations for its Ascendant 107-foot aerial,

Chris Mc Loone

Shortly before FDIC International-just a couple of weeks, in fact-we received word that REV Group purchased Kovatch Mobile Equipment (KME).

Acquisitions like this are not uncommon and have occurred in the fire service before. There are many fire service veterans who can rattle off lists of such mergers/acquisitions in short order. And, some of the saltier veterans will follow up the list with their candid opinions on the success of each. That the news came right before FDIC International didn’t leave much time for much information to come out besides the news of the acquisition. Naturally, there was speculation at the show regarding how the acquisition would impact KME-especially since REV Group also owns E-ONE.

I am by no means an expert on mergers and acquisitions. I went through one early in my own career, and I came to work for this magazine shortly after PennWell Corporation acquired it from its original owner. But, looking at how REV Group has handled other acquisitions on the ambulance side of the manufacturing business, I expect KME to remain a brand within REV Group, continuing to manufacture fire apparatus from its Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania, facility.

There are many reasons one company acquires another company. Sometimes it’s in the cards for a number of years. For example, take Task Force Tips’s (TFT) recent acquisition of AMKUS Rescue Systems. Although there wasn’t as much buzz about this acquisition at the show, FDIC International 2016 was the first show for AMKUS as part of TFT. I had a chance to speak with Rod Carringer, TFT’s chief marketing officer, before the show and during the show about the acquisition. He stated that the companies had discussed such a merger for some time. I was frank with him about how this acquisition was a little different than previous purchases that laid the foundation for what TFT is today-other acquisitions have been based around water flow, not vehicle extrication tools. But, coming into the TFT family provides AMKUS with complementary resources as well as expanded resources that will allow it to take several steps forward in the extrication tool market. This is only one example, but there are more out there where the acquiring company helps enhance product offerings.

If there’s one thing that’s certain in the fire service, it is that firefighters want variety. They want choices. And, there are plenty of them, no matter how many acquisitions have taken place. The level of customization that goes into the fire apparatus built today is such that there will always be a need for multiple vendors and multiple builders. Fire service suppliers know that competition is good, that it will drive innovation and keep competing companies at the top of their game. More than 32,000 firefighters attended FDIC International 2016-record attendance. They were there to learn, to perfect their craft, and to walk the show floor in search of solutions for their departments. Numbers like that at an exhibition as large as FDIC International prove that firefighters want choices.

Every one of us has our favorite apparatus manufacturer, preferred tool vendor, and preferred truck components. As long as the arguments over smooth bore vs. combination fog nozzles, single-stage vs. two-stage pumps, speedlays vs. rear hoseline deployment, and manual vs. electronic valve controls exist, there will be a variety of companies working to keep participants on both sides happy.

Every once in a while, we do lose a vendor or two. I recently looked