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,