Editor's Note: This is the second in a series of articles profiling ITT Industries' value centers. Our goal is to help employees around the globe learn more about their sister companies. The threat of fire that looms over any industrial setting poses even greater peril in an aircraft hangar. A small fire can escalate into a conflagration if flames reach highly volatile jet fuel. To prevent such a disaster, Mesaba Airlines, fourth largest regional airline in the U.S., recently turned to A-C Fire Pump Systems. The Fluid Technology company, headquartered in Morton Grove, Illinois, specializes in custom engineering entire fire protection packages. The turnkey system designed for a new Mesaba hangar in Detroit included four engine-driven pumps capable of delivering 16,000 gallons of water per minute. Pre-assembled in Morton Grove, the skid-mounted pumps and other equipment (fuel systems, lights, heaters to keep the water from freezing, etc.) were all enclosed in a prefabricated metal building. The unit was so big it had to be built in two pieces that were joined at the site. Weighing over 100,000 lbs. and measuring 40 feet long by 22 feet wide, the entire pump house was the largest ever constructed in two pieces. Amazingly, the project was completed on a rush basis in little over two months. The engineering feat comes as no surprise from a company that since 1886 has been in the forefront of developing, designing and custom building a wide range of fire pump systems to meet every fire protection need. "We have arguably the broadest product offering in the industry," says marketing manager Hansford Stewart. Besides the aerospace industry, A-C Fire Pump designs large package systems for the power generation and automotive industries (Ford, GM and Chrysler are major customers). They also serve the nonresidential market that includes office buildings, warehouses, hotels/motels, schools and health care facilities. A-C Fire Pump was acquired by ITT Industries from Allis-Chalmers in 1988. Its products are manufactured at the Bell & Gossett plant in Morton Grove, with the sister company also providing purchasing and product engineering support. A staff of six people, including Stewart, runs the business with help from a distributor organization that handles marketing. Package systems are tailored not only to customers' performance requirements but geographic conditions. A-C Fire Pump units are built to withstand Canadian blizzards, California earthquakes and Florida hurricanes. "We build custom designed package systems, working with the customer's engineering staff right from the design concept stage," explains Stewart. Despite turbulence in the airline industry and weakness in the overall economy, sales remain brisk and prospects bright. The market for the company's space-saving in-line pumps with smaller flows (up to 1,000 gallons per minute) is growing at 14 percent a year. The company is building on its already extensive product line with a string of new products -- three introduced last year and three more set for launch later this year. "We've received a great deal of support from the VBPD (Value Based Product Development) initiative in our drive to increase market share through innovative offerings and robust product development," says Stewart. While generating new products for its traditional markets, the company is expanding into exciting new markets. A segment of the residential market offers high-growth potential: one- and two-family homes and low-rise multi-family housing. "In the near future we think sprinklers will be as common in homes as smoke detectors are now, and we're actively developing products to serve that market."			The A-C Fire Pump package built for Mesaba Airlines hangar in Detroit is readied for enclosure in a prefab metal house. The system, which weighs over 50 tons, includes four engine-driven pumps able to deliver 16,000 gallons of water per minute. The terror threats that dominate today's headlines could be spurring increased orders from one of A-C Fire Pump's best customers -- the U.S. State Department. A-C Fire Pump has supplied the majority of fire protection systems in U.S. embassies around the world, according to marketing manager Hansford Stewart. When a car bomb triggered a fire at the U.S. embassy in Lima, Peru, several years ago, it was an A-C Fire Pump unit that extinguished the blaze. More recently, when an accidental fire broke out in the American embassy in Moscow, it was quickly doused by an A-C Fire Pump system. The U.S. embassy in Istanbul, Turkey, gained A-C Fire Pump protection in February, and another in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) will be covered starting this August. Recent orders placed by the U.S. government involve embassies in Sofia, Bulgaria; Yerevan, Armenia; and Abidjan in the Ivory Coast. The pre-packaged systems are custom designed to fit embassy basements. The unit built for the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv had to be split in half so it could be brought in through the elevator shaft. Piping and wiring were reconnected to unite the two sections. "A-C Fire Pump systems probably protect over a hundred U.S. embassies around the world, and we're proud of our long-standing relationship with the State Department," says Stewart.