CUSTOMIZING APPARATUS FOR INDUSTRY
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Features of Merck`s Engine 422: (1) Top-mounted 1,250-gpm monitor on an 18-inch telescoping riser. (2) Top-mounted pump panel. Note the brass fitting in the center for the pump operator`s air line mask fed from a 1A size air cylinder behind the panel. (3) The “Merck Tripod Compartment,” under the hosebed at chest height for ease of use and safety. (4) Size 1A air cylinder with an air line mask with 12 feet of line for ease of movement by the pump operator. The cover over the cylinder holds a 500-gpm nozzle with a 12-foot pickup tube. This setup can be placed on the monitor and the pickup tube dropped into the foam tank hatch for use as a foam master stream. The cover itself is on a piano hinge as designed by the committee. (5) The right rear “Air” compartment. Inside is an air cart with two one-hour bottles and a modified hand truck with two 300-foot reels of air line. The top shelves hold masks and escape bottles stored in padded cases. (6) The front bumper holds two 150-foot lengths of 134-inch hose. These were specially designed by the committee for quick deployment for our outside process pads. (7) Note the two seven-inch white lights on either side of the wheel. All eight around the apparatus automatically go on when the emergency air brake is engaged. (Photos by author.)
BY RONALD E. KANTERMAN
Well, the old Ford had just about had it. It has served us at Merck & Co. well for almost 30 years, but the gasoline-engine, four-speed-manual-transmission, 750-gpm unit had had about all it was going to take. We needed something to replace the vehicle. But what?
The first thing I did as chief of department was to put together a truck committee. I asked for volunteers since this project would involve more than 100 hours of work and I wanted committed individuals. Two officers and two firefighters made up the group. (I had the fifth vote to break any ties.) Three of the four committee members are volunteers on the outside, and three of the four are also members of the technical rescue team. One of the officers is also an auto mechanic for the plant.
Their charge was to bring in a piece of apparatus that would meet the department and plant`s needs while staying within the guidelines of NFPA 1901, Automotive Fire Apparatus–1996. The order was “functional first, pretty second.” If the funding held out, we`d make it pretty. It would serve as a first-due pumper, carry confined-space rescue equipment, and have foam capability. (We have a 1,250-gpm foam truck that carries 750 gallons of concentrate and has a 54-foot articulating boom. This new unit was to be a backup to the foam truck and capable of enabling us to achieve quick knockdown at a flammable liquid fire, since it would be the first-due unit.)
The committee was given a maximum dollar amount and told to design large compartments and specify the largest pump we could get for that size truck–and it had to be red. (Tradition prevailed!)
COMMITTEE WORK
The committee collected pumper specifications from local dealers and used them as a template for our specifications. Members spent countless hours meeting with salespeople from dealers handling different makes and models of apparatus. When the final spec was written, I reviewed it with the committee and had only a few questions and some minor changes. [They were told at the outset that they were to design and spec the unit, since it was for them. I`m not the one who will drive or pump it. I won`t be taking ladders off the rack or pulling the rescue tripod out of the spot beneath the hosebed. They specified their truck for their use and did one fantastic job (every chief`s dream).]
THE BID PROCESS AND FINAL DESIGN
After the committee and our purchasing department finalized the bid specs, the specs were sent to five dealers/manufacturers. Only two bid on the truck. The first thing the manufacturer who was awarded the contract did was to put a conceptual drawing together for our review. We made changes and returned it for a revised print. Once this was done, we took a preconstruction/ engineering trip to the factory. Two committee members and I worked with our salesman and a contract administrator for two and a half days. And work we did! We made 85 changes to the original spec. Most of the changes were the result of our walking the assembly line and getting ideas to “add this” and “drop that.” Our salesman made all the changes within a week of the trip. We reviewed and approved them and forwarded them to the manufacturer so that the building of our truck could begin. We approved the final plans in mid-July. Construction started in early August.
The committee and I went back to the factory in November 1996 to take delivery of the unit. We performed a line-by-line check of the final construction specification and found two small items that had to be changed. This was accomplished within an hour. The salesman jumped in the cab, on our approval, and drove the truck back to our facility in New Jersey.
THE UNIT–ENGINE 422
Cab and Chassis
The basic unit has a climate-controlled, raised-top cab that seats six. Special features of the cab include a custom-made preplan book and map box, a handheld spotlight, a roof-mounted radio and siren on a swivel bracket, and an outlet strip mounted to the engine cover and connected to the electrical shore line to keep radios and meters on charge while in quarters.
The 1,500-gpm pump panel is top-mounted. The unit has a 1,250-gpm deck gun on a rising/extending mount. There are nine preconnected lines–two on the bumper, three under the pump panel, two mounted above the pump panel, and two at the rear of the apparatus. The two lines above the pump panel are foam lines. The tank is a split foam/water tank (250 gallons of each). The foam system is similar to the standard foam systems currently found on municipal pumpers. It is nothing more than a fixed pickup tube system. However, the unit has two lines and a 250-gallon concentrate tank in the area where municipal units usually have one line and a 50-gallon tank. A trough on both sides of the unit holds five-inch soft-suction hose.
Special Features and Safety Items
Among the special features designed by the committee is a special one-foot 2 one-foot 2 10-foot compartment under the rear hosebed for the rescue tripod. (It is now known at the factory as the “Merck Tripod Compartment.”)
When the driver comes to a full stop and applies the parking brake, six seven-inch white undercarriage lights automatically illuminate. Undercarriage lights are specified in NFPA 1901 (3-3.5.6–illumination of steps, work areas, and walkways) for safety purposes. The tie-in with the parking brake makes it operator-error free. A switch at the rear of the white rear scene lights unit provides for manual operation.
An air horn switch on the pump panel permits the pump operator to evacuate the building without leaving the pump on receiving an order from the incident commander.
A 1A air cylinder equipped with an airline mask (supplied air respirator) with 12 feet of hose is behind the pump panel for the pump operator`s use. The air connection is on the pump panel. This allows the pump operator to move around the pump and even get down off the platform while staying on air.
The cover over this cylinder acts as a tray and holds a 500-gpm nozzle and a 12-foot pickup tube. The 1,250-gpm nozzle can be removed and replaced with this unit, and the pickup tube can be dropped into the foam concentrate tank. This tray is on a piano hinge so it can be opened and the air tank can be removed for required hydrostatic testing and other maintenance.
The compartments are the deepest on the market and hold all of our confined-space rescue equipment, including an air cart, a hand truck with air hose, two stretchers, a stokes basket, and all the rest of the required equipment. We`ve yet to fill all the shelves in all of the compartments, most of which roll out or out and down. The compartment doors are rollup type. Contrary to what we had been told, they do not take up room or jam.
GOING IN SERVICE
The Saturday following delivery was changeover day. All available fire and rescue personnel came to the fire station to change over the equipment, to train, and to put E422 in service.
IT`S PRETTY, TOO!
We had enough funding to make the unit functional and pretty. We had the factory`s graphics shop duplicate the company logo in gold leaf, paint the cab white, and put inserts on the wheels. Our department logo was hand-painted on the doors, and the reflective striping sequence was customized to our specification. Not many industrial apparatus look like this one, and we`re extremely proud of it.
THOUGHTS ON SUCCESS
“Critiquing” this project, it became evident that abiding by the following guidelines helped to ensure its success:
1. Let the people who are going to use the unit design it.
2. Be a guiding force: coach and advise.
3. Functional is always first.
4. Ask for volunteers first; then appoint as necessary.
5. Pretty is good for morale. n
RONALD E. KANTERMAN is the chief of fire protection at Merck & Co. in Rahway, New Jersey. He has a B.A. in fire science and an M.S. in fire protection management from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. Kanterman also is an adjunct professor of fire science at Middlesex County College in New Jersey and is a member of the IAFC Industrial Section.
