Electrothermal Engineering Ltd

Vehicle Mounted Heaters and Water Rations

Electrothermal Engineering Ltd is the world leader in serving science; providing analytical instruments, equipment, reagents and consumables, software and services for research, analysis, discovery and diagnostics.

Surprising uses for electrical heaters, from heating drinking water and warming food rations on-the-move in a military vehicle?
Or helping to make the pouring of that perfect pint of beer less of an art form and more of a foolproof operation? Facetious enquiries, you could be forgiven for thinking, posed to raise a smile in an idle moment with colleagues who have enjoyed too much of the ice-cold beer. Most definitely not! These were critical business problems for the organizations concerned and all of them resolved.

If the right heater cannot be supplied off the shelf, then they lend themselves readily to customization, sometimes directly by the customer but mostly by our own design team. The only real limitation to their use is imagination; and with many years of experience, this is something we have plenty of.

The need for battery warmers in a plane soon makes itself very clear when you consider that the airstream can be as cold as -50°C at high altitudes reached by fighters. Batteries exposed to this quickly cease working. This scenario can be avoided by completely encasing the battery with one of our silicone rubber mat heaters. They can heat up to 200°C, and are held firmly in place with adhesives that will withstand up to 250°C. In practice, two such encased batteries would be placed side by side. We have been manufacturing military aircraft battery warmers in conjunction with major dry-cell battery manufacture for over ten years.

Military Vehicle Mounted, Water and Ration Heaters

The Heater Water & Ration (HW&R) can provide hot meals and drinks for a five person crew of an armored vehicle or provide hot water for washing, heating water for drinks and ration packs (MRE) in 20 minutes (depending on power rating) under operational conditions or at other times in most climates and keeping the contents hot for over four hours after switch-off.

All this in a lightweight, robust and versatile unit which has both low and high temperature settings, and features an over-temperature and low-battery (voltage) cut-out for safety. The unit comes with its own built-in control and has been designed in alignment with most military armoured vehicle power uptake requirements, so a separate control unit is no longer necessary.

These units have been installed in many different types of military vehicles in a number of countries.
The HW&R NSN’s are 7310-01-387-1305, 7310-99-362-3482 plus 7310-99-811-6909.

Finally, we return to our starting point, pouring beer. This interesting application arose out of an enquiry from a major gas company who had developed a new drinks dispensing system for public houses. Nowadays propellant gas plays a major role in dispensing beer as it is widely used to force the beer out of the keg whist the barperson pulls the pint. It can, however, affect the beer’s taste, as real ale drinkers are frequently known to lament, mainly due to residual impurities in the gas. To counter this, the company had developed a new plastic membrane filter that would condition the gas before the beer went up the tube to be served. Their problem was that to be effective, the filter had to be kept at 40°C. In conjunction with ourselves the filter has been modified to include a surface heater that will last for ten years.

Electrical Heaters - the only real limitation to their use is imagination….

We are maintaining our tradition of innovative product design, keeping abreast if not ahead, of current international standards, as we believe that only through excellence will we succeed.

Electrothermal Engineering

Vehicle Mounted Cooking Vessel Products for
Heating Water and Rations

A range of rugged vehicle mounted heating vessels for heating water and rations includes:

•The older-style and much respected Mk 2 FV706656 cooking vessel and separate control unit;
•The new range of heater, water and ration RAK products designed to meet the demands of the modern day, rapid, mechanised Forces worldwide.
Products designed for land, sea and air.

Military Cooking and Boiling Vessel - FV706656

The cooking vessel FV706656 serves a dual purpose in that it can provide boiling water for beverages, washing or other purposes and, at the same time, heat up tinned or decanted foods for the crew of any vehicle that has a 24-28 V dc (24 V dc nominal), 57.5 amp power supply. Operation is possible at any time but normally during stationary mode. For vehicles without a standby generator, the power drain needs to be monitored. Dependent upon the type of vehicle, the power supply to the cooking vessel may or may not incorporate a switch. In all cases, the plug connection to the cooking vessel is standard push-on, pull-off, with the low power pins shorter than the heavy current pins, to avoid arcing on the make and break.

RAK15 and RAK30 Water and Ration Heaters

The HW&R provides a mounted portable water and pre-packaged rations heating facility for the crew of any vehicle that has a 22-28 V dc (24 V dc nominal) 15 amp electrical system. Operation is possible at any time (including full battle conditions), in any climate, while stationary or mobile. When used for water only, the HW&R can heat up to one gallon of potable (drinking) water for beverages, hygiene or medical purposes. When used for rations (MREs – Meals ready to Eat), the HW&R can heat five unopened MRE entrees together with 40 fluid ounces of potable water. With the cover closed and locked, the HW&R can keep the contents hot for as long as operationally required.