Humvee units staying cool under fire
The company received a $25 million contract in March to manufacture the first field-installed air-conditioning units designed especially for the Humvee, the boxy vehicle that is the standard mode of transportation for the U.S. Army in Iraq.
This month the company will complete its task of building nearly 10,000 A/C units for Humvees. The air conditioners were needed because when the Army installed heavy armor on the previously less-protected Humvees, "what they essentially had were rolling pizza ovens," said Gary Hansen, Red Dot's vice president of engineering.
For the last four months, Red Dot has been producing up to 600 Humvee A/C units a week — adding a weekend shift to accommodate the extra workload. The units are airlifted to Iraq and installed in the field by civilian service representatives based in six Iraqi cities.
Laurie Austin, a Humvee armor product manager with the Army's Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command in Warren, Mich., said the Army sent out a market survey in December looking for a manufacturer that could quickly respond to its needs.
The air conditioners were "urgently required to keep soldiers from becoming unconscious or falling asleep in the overheated vehicles," wrote Mary Rehm, an Army contract officer, in announcing the contract award.
The standard Army Humvees — many of them with canvas roofs and open windows — were not designed for the urban warfare happening in Iraq.
Humvees became a favorite target of insurgents using grenades or makeshift explosives.
But when the Army started reinforcing its Humvees in Iraq with armor plating late last year, it solved one problem while creating another: The 1-inch-thick plating and 3-inch-thick windows shut off all ventilation and trapped hot air, which under the harsh Iraqi sun can easily reach 160 degrees.
A big problem with the armored Humvees, said Austin, was that soldiers rolled down the windows to cool off, making themselves more vulnerable to grenade attacks or shrapnel.
Red Dot was the only company that offered a solution, Austin said. The firm's design team developed a prototype in less than a week, then flew out to the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland to test-install the kit on a Humvee. The process — from design to production — took about 60 days.
Red Dot executives said the contract was a natural fit.
"We are experienced in these heavy-duty type of applications," said R. Bruce Channer, chief financial officer and vice president of sales and marketing for Red Dot. The Humvee design is not much different from units Red Dot makes for Caterpillar bulldozers or John Deere backhoes — only more rugged and, of course, camouflaged.
The unit sits between two seats in the cabin. Large black ducts fitted onto the ceiling snake around the turret hole to bring blasts of cool air to each seat. The condenser, used to dissipate hot air from the cabin, is mounted with reinforced bracketing above the roof of the Humvee.
One design consideration not needed back home on a bulldozer: The space between the roof and the condenser had to be high enough that a grenade could roll across the roof without getting stuck.
"It's not a pretty installation," said Channer, "but all we were trying to do was make it quick and make it functional."
In tests in the company's huge environmental chamber, the A/C unit was able to bring the cabin from 140 degrees down to 83 degrees, Hansen said.
James Rollins, production manager for the Humvee project, is particularly proud of how the job went. "Our company really bonded as a unit," he said. "It was a project that everyone could relate to."
Rollins, an Army reservist who is getting called up at the end of the year for a stint in Afghanistan, said he has received a number of e-mails from soldiers in Iraq thanking Red Dot for providing the cool air.
The contract has accounted for 30 percent of the company's revenues this year, Channer said. He said business was already up 20 percent, thanks to a strengthening economy and an increase of orders for heavy vehicles.
When the contract expires at the end of this month, Red Dot will have sent off nearly 10,000 units. The company is already working on another Army contract — installing A/C units in armored cabins of 5-ton trucks.
Brandon Sprague: 206-464-2263 or bsprague@seattletimes.com
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