Thermo King Passes Inspection by US Marines
Thermo King Corp has secured a government contract for the supply of 585 refrigeration units to the United States Marine Corps through the US Army Materials Acquisition Center in Natick MA.
In 1998, the US Marine Corps asked Thermo King to bid on a project to retrofit existing 10-foot mobile and multipurpose stackable refrigeration containers. These containers are used worldwide for storage of food, pharmaceuticals, and other medical supplies.
To win the contract, Thermo King first had to see if it had a unit that came close to the initial capacity specification. Thermo King engineers conducted tests on a container to measure box temperature loss (air leakage) and unit capacity needed to maintain designated temperature levels.
After the Marines were satisfied that Thermo King's unit could do the job, an official request for proposal was issued. Thermo King was awarded the job in September 1999 and was given a 90-day time period to deliver the first 100 units. After initial delivery, 100 units per month were to be delivered until the entire order was complete.
Specifications also called for a training program and support material to accompany each unit. Thermo King developed literature specifically for the retrofitted VM405 and conducted a two-day training session at corporate headquarters in Minneapolis MN, and supervised military training sessions at various military bases.
The final shipment of VM405s took place in June 2000.