A British manufacturer of specialized fire extinguishers for race cars is hoping to speed up sales by opening a Santa Fe Springs facility.
Lifeline Fire & Safety Systems, based in the city of Coventry, designs and manufactures 16 types of fire safety systems installed in race cars worldwide, including those competing in the Formula 1, IndyCar and Nascar series.
?uto racing is one of the most watched spectator sports in the United States and the company thought what better place than Los Angeles to set up its first business,?said Mark Hotchkis, general manager of Lifeline USA, the U.S. subsidiary of the company founded by former British driver Jim Morris.
Lifeline USA opened its doors for business officially last week in a 5,000-square-foot warehouse with 10 employees. Initial inventory will be imported from Britain, but Hotchkis said the next batch will be made from parts manufacturered by L.A.-area companies and assembled at the facility.
Hotchkis said Lifeline hopes to double its employee base and expand the warehouse over the next three years as it competes against other manufacturers in the U.S. and South America.
In the racing world, where speeds can top 200 miles per hour and crashes can cause engines to explode in flames, all racing series require vehicles to have fire safety equipment.
Lifeline? equipment with its small canisters resembles common household fire extinguishers but uses gases designed to extinguish fires without harming a car? metalwork.
Hotchkis said the extinguishers, which cost $350 to $2,000, can put out fires in seconds. Some devices are automatic and contain sensors that can detect variations in heat while others are manually operated by drivers.
Jim Spoonhower, vice president of market research for the Specialty Equipment Market Association, a Diamond Bar-based trade group that tracks the racing industry, said Lifeline? move was smart despite the cost of doing business in Los Angeles and a decline in automobile parts manufacturing.
He noted that there is a demand for such equipment, not only from professional race car teams but from dedicated amateurs.
?ifeline could do quite well here because people who are investing in race cars need this equipment and are fanatic about their cars,?Spoonhower said. ?hey may give up going to see a movie or buying something else in order to save some money which they could put towards these kinds of products.?p>
Plant Plans
Rentech Inc., a Westwood-based developer of alternative energy fuel, plans to build a plant in Rialto that will turn green waste such as yard clippings into clean-burning synthetic fuels.
Company officials said the construction of the Inland Empire facility is expected to create about 250 jobs and another 55 permanent jobs when fully operating.
The Rialto Renewable Energy Center will be designed to produce roughly 600 barrels per day of renewable synthetic fuels and to generate 35 megawatts of renewable electric power that will be sold to utilities ?enough power to provide electricity for 30,000 homes, company officials said.
?e expect the Rialto project to be the prototype for many waste-to-fuels projects for Rentech,?said Doug Miller, an executive vice president at the company, in a statement. ?t will also support the spectrum of the Obama administration? initiatives for domestic energy production.?p>The plant is still in the design phase and will not be operational until 2012.
Charging Ahead
Although most know AeroVironment Inc. as a developer of unmanned aircraft systems for the U.S. military, the Monrovia company also is pursuing business in alternative energy.
AeroVironment is in the process of hiring 100 people to expand its efficient-energy systems division in Simi Valley. That division makes so-called clean energy products such as rooftop wind turbines and a fast-working battery charger for electric and hybrid vehicles called PosiCharge.
Now, the Washington, D.C., Department of Transportation has announced it will purchase an unspecified number of PosiCharge systems and install them around the U.S. capital by spring of next year.
The city agency also has bought about 100 electric cars from Nissan that will plug into the chargers once the cars are delivered next year.
Staff reporter Francisco Vara-Orta can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 241, or at [email protected]
