BY ED BALLAMWEST SAYVILLE, N.Y. – It

might be an overstatement,but not by much, to say thatnearly all fire apparatus andambulances built today havesome pieces made by Kuss-maul Electronics CompanyInc. on board.

For nearly 40 years, Kuss-maul has been quietly carvingitself a niche in the fire serviceand emergency response mar-ket developing products tosolve challenges and problemswith vehicles – like dead andoverworked batteries andinadequate pressure in airbrake systems.“Most of our products were

developed out of people tellingus of a problem and us lookingfor a solution,” says ErnieKussmaul, the founder, presi-dent and co-owner of hisnamesake company, which islocated in a small town onLong Island, N.Y.

Defining The Problem“The one thing that I’ve

learned over the years is if youhave properly defined theproblem, and you clearlyunderstand the market andwhat the customer will pay tosolve the problem, you willcreate a successful product.”While Kussmaul has had some

successful ones, “we have somethat are not so successful.”That’s a modest statement

from the man who built abusiness with no revenuesfrom a small room in a garageto a company with more than$8 million in annual salesworldwide, 55 employees anda new expansion that bringsthe total plant square footageto 34,050.

Family-OwnedThe company is privately

held by Kussmaul, who holds51 percent of the companystock, and his wife Marilyn,who holds 49 percent.“When we have a board

meeting it’s very democratic,”he quips. “We take a vote anddo it my way,” he jokes. “Thereare some people who want meto retire and I am getting bet-ter at it. Now, I only work 40hours a week and I take a Fri-day off here and there.”Kussmaul says that building

the business from scratch to amulti-million dollar enterprisehad more to do with “stayingpower” than talent.Company vice president

Tom Nugent, who has workedfor Kussmaul for 20 years, callshis employer’s tale a “typicalAmerican success story.”“He’s an engineer who

started a business in his garageand it has grown from there,”says Nugent, who had a signif-icant hand in the company’ssuccess. He is a quintessentialjack of all trades, doing every-thing from marketing anddesigning catalogs to researchand development on new

products to actually makingtools and dies in the com-pany’s machine shop. He evenruns the company’s injectedplastic molding machine.Kussmaul, which is pro-

nounced “coozemall,” recentlystarted building a market withproducts designed for policevehicles. Kussmaul’s SafetyLock system allows officers totake the keys for security andleave the car running.If someone shifts or steps on

the brake to move the vehiclewithout the key, the enginestops. A running engine keepsthe battery charged and the

warning lights, scene lights,radios and other electricalaccessories operating.The police market accounts

for only five percent of the busi-ness at this time, but it looks likean area of significant growth.It’s the fire market, however,

that’s the company’s bread andbutter, according to Nugentand Kussmaul.“We work with just about

every vehicle manufacturer,”says Nugent. “We do sell someindustrial chargers and equip-ment, but 95 percent of whatwe do is related to emergencyservices vehicles.”

Volume 10 No. 6 June 2005

The Magazine Reporting On Trucks, Tools & New Technology

“Ernie Kussmaul’s taleis a “typical American

success story.”

Tom Nugent, Vice PresidentKussmaul Electronics

Kussmaul’s Creativity Solves Vehicle Challenges

Kussmaul Electronics Company’s Vice President TomNugent, left, and Ernie Kussmaul, president and founder ofthe company, display products for emergency apparatus.

Fire Apparatus 3

“I decided I didn’t want towork for other people any-more,” Kussmaul says. “Idecided I had enough.”It was September 1967

when he pulled the plug onthe corporate 9 to 5 life andstarted doing contract designwork and engineering in a 10feet by 22 feet area in the backof his garage.

Learning Marketing“I didn’t know anything

about selling or marketing,”Kussmaul says. “I was a designman, so I sold my design workand my engineering experi-ence for a number of years.”

His clients were people whoknew him, including FairchildStratos, a textile company thatneeded help with fabricinspection equipment and re-rolling speed controls and amedical firm that neededmoveable, positionable tablesfor their imaging machines.

The First Product“It was a table that could go

up and down and left andright,” Kussmaul says of onehis first products. “They askedme if I could build a table andI said, ‘Sure I can build a table,what’s there to a table?’ I saidyes to just about everythingback then.”By then, Kussmaul had out-

grown his workshop andmoved into a rented old horsebarn about three-quarters of amile from his home. In thatspace, which he occupiedfrom 1969 to 1980, he

While battery chargerswere the company’s point ofentry into the fire service,some other products, includ-ing the Kussmaul auto ejectand air eject devices, are evenbigger sellers.

Auto-Eject DevicesErnie Kussmaul explains

the Auto-Eject devices auto-matically disconnect powerlines and the Air-Eject ejectsthe air lines from a vehiclewhen it’s started. Electromag-netic plungers push the powercords and air chucks fromtheir connections, freeingfirefighters from the obliga-tion of manually disconnect-ing them during responses.Auto-Eject is a registered

trademark of Kussmaul Elec-tronics Co. Inc.“The Auto-Eject is what

really put us on the map,”Kussmaul says. “It is by far ourmost successful product.”He says he can’t even say how

it was created, but he knows itwas about 1986 and it was animmediate success. “We’vealways made battery chargers,but theAuto-Eject is somethingthat when anyone sees it, theysay, ‘isn’t that a good idea.’”Kussmaul says it was a

unique product. “The problem

with battery chargers is theydon’t do anything. They justsit there and you can’t see itwork. But with an Auto-Eject,you push the starter buttonand watch the plug pop out.”He remembers well how

the business started and howit evolved into the fire serv-ice market.Kussmaul moved to Sayville

in 1941 when he was in sixthgrade and graduated fromSayville High School, Class of1947. He had a lifelong inter-est in aviation (he’s now thepilot of the company plane)and had worked for a com-pany designing switches, con-trols and positioners for air-craft antenna.

The Early YearsHis engineering jobs

included one with FairchildStratos Corporation, workingon aircraft air-conditioningsystems. At the same time, hewas commuting almost 80miles a day and going to NewYork University in the Bronxand busy with a family life. Heand his wife have a daughter,Annette Kussmaul, a JohnsHopkins University graduatewho is a doctor with a federalhealth care administration jobin Kansas City, Mo.

designed products, made pro-totypes and did limited pro-duction work for his small listof clients.Right about the time that

Kussmaul was building a newfactory, only a mile-and-a-halffrom his home (he wasthrough with commuting) aformer classmate who was afire commissioner in Sayvillecame to him with a problem— dead batteries on firetrucks. He needed a batterycharger and Kussmaul was justthe man to ask.

A New Charger“Sure, I can build you a

battery charger,” was Kuss-maul’s answer.The product was a station-

mounted system that couldcharge the batteries of 10trucks at a time. The chargerwas tucked into a corner ofthe station and wired tothe trucks.That first charger was a big

capital investment of nearly$3,000 in 1980 dollars, accord-ing to Kussmaul, but it wasstill a winner with a few localdepartments – very few as itturned out.Without advertising, or

marketing, West Sayvilleofficials said they wantedone for their department, asdid nearby Bohemia andlater the Long Island town ofCenter Moriches.

Draftsman Bill Johnson works on designing a batterycharger. Kussmaul uses computer-aided design and mod-eling for product development. (Fire Apparatus Photo)

Kussmaul’s Auto-Eject auto-matically disconnects powerand air lines from appara-tus. It is the company’s mostpopular product.

“I’ll do anything Ican to help outfirefighters andEMS personnel.”

Gary Doyle,Kussmaul’s Chief Engineer

4 Fire Apparatus

Margaret Nochese assembles load managers at KussmaulElectronics. Load managers help maintain battery conditionby automatically shutting off non-priority vehicle accessories.

“After we did the Bohemiaone, we said we ought to goout and try to sell some ofthese things,” Kussmaul says,remarking that he and hisemployees were engineers, notmarketing guys.

Department Visits“We printed up some liter-

ature and I went out and vis-ited some fire departments.That was a real waste of time.You can’t sell to a fire depart-ment because they’re notthere. It’s not like an indus-trial or commercial businesswhere you can identify andlocate a person.”Undaunted, Kussmaul

Electronics did some directmail and advertising of thenew product.“Money was in very short

supply back then and here wewere making things, batterychargers, and not getting any-thing in return,” Kussmaulsays. “We were making otherproducts for other businessesthat were subsidizing the firedepartment business.” He saysif it weren’t for that otherwork, the emergency equip-

ment business would not havebeen possible.Then the big break came.Kussmaul visited a local

ambulance company thathad expressed interest in abattery charger system, butnever followed through. Hedecided to make a personalvisit to see why they neverplaced the order.“I lost the sale and that was a

traumatic experience for me,”Kussmaul says, reiterating thathe’s an engineer who makesstuff, not a marketing guy.“They said they didn’t want astation-mounted charger; theywanted a vehicle-mountedcharger, so they bought some-one else’s product.”Kussmaul came back from

that visit, met with Nugentand on the spot theydesigned a new vehicle-mounted charger.

Vehicle Chargers“I decided that it was never

going to happen again and Iwas going to have both prod-ucts available,” Kussmaul says.The vehicle-mounted

charger would use the same

control board, the sametransformer, the same recti-fier, the same everything — itjust needed to be reconfig-ured and put into a shoebox-size container.

The Signature LineIt was more than just

another product. This oneproved to be a signature linefor Kussmaul and a mainstayfor the fire service as well.“We used to sell a few of those

big chargers every year, but nowwe’re down to only one or two ayear,” Kussmaul says.

Moving deeper into the fireservice market, KussmaulElectronics started advertisingheavily in trade publicationsand exhibiting on the fireshow circuit. People in the fireservice embraced the productand gave Kussmaul employeesideas for new products,including the Auto-Eject.Nugent says the Auto-Eject

is the company’s biggest-sell-ing line of products. In fact,the 2005 expansion of theplant added an additional20,000 square feet of manufac-turing and stock space. Newand old shop areas are brightand clean and occupied byfriendly, busy workers.

New ExpansionNearly a quarter of the new

space is occupied by a teamof workers making Auto-Eject devices.Al Kane, production assem-

bly shop manager, says thatKussmaul Electronics has

rearranged the Auto-Eject pro-duction area to be more of anassembly line.“They were all cramped

into one little corner before,”says Kane, who has workedfor Kussmaul for 10 years.“Now, we have an assemblyline with drill presses andeverything we need to keepproduction up all the time.Our Auto-Ejects have alwaysbeen popular and it seems thedemand is growing.”

A Good Place ToWorkIt’s Kane’s job to keep work

in-house. He goes to local highschools looking for students tohelp with some labor- inten-sive tasks and even someassembly work.He says the people who are

hired usually stay with Kuss-maul Electronics because it is agood place to work.“The people working on the

products test the products andthey take a lot of care in whatthey are building,” Kane says.“If there’s a problem, theybring it up and we correct it.It’s not like that in other com-panies.”And, being a small company,

Kussmaul can cross-train andshift people around to getorders filled. Typically, thecompany is producing goodsto stock in anticipation ofsales. Every once in a while,special orders will come

Chris Fichera displays aSuper 30 Auto-Eject.

“I decided I didn’twant to work

for other peopleanymore.”

Ernie Kussmaul, PresidentKussmaul Electronics

Rich Tooker works assembling Super 30 Auto-Ejects. Eachunit is bench tested before shipping. (Fire Apparatus Photo)

Peter Parrillo, Kussmaul’s service manager, tests the outputand load of one of the company’s battery chargers.

Fire Apparatus 5

through, or there’s not enoughstock to complete the order.“We can stop production,

move some people around andget the job done,” Kane says.He works closely with the salesdepartment to make sure theshelves are stocked and specialorders are filled.

Getting The Job Done“More than 90 percent of

the time, we have the rawmaterials in stock to get thejob done and get it out thenext day if that’s what it takes,”Kane says.That independence is

something that Nugent val-ues greatly.That’s why he’s directly

involved with research anddevelopment of new products.It’s also why he’s learned howto operate the company’s com-puter-assisted machine shoptools so he can create neededtools and dies.It can take up to 14 weeks to

get new tools and dies,Nugent says. “Doing it inhouse, we can usually have itdone in a week. That allows usto come up with new prod-ucts a lot quicker.”Kussmaul Electronics does

nearly all of its manufacturing,including assembling printedcircuit boards. Only the sheet

metal work for product cases isdone off-site.“It gives us far better quality

control and we’re better able tomeet our needs that way,” saysNugent. The company doesn’thave to wait a long time forvendors and suppliers to fillsmall orders. “We don’t havethat kind of time to spare, sowe just do it ourselves.”Gary Doyle is Kussmaul

Electronics’ chief engineer. It’shis job to design the printedcircuits and electronics tomake the products work.Interesting gadgets and digitaltesting equipment help himlay out circuitry so detailedthat he must wear multiplemagnifying eye loupes.“I’m honored to be working

for a company that producesitems for the fire and EMSservices,” says Doyle, who hasworked for Kussmaul forthree years. “I’ll do anything Ican to help out firefightersand EMS personnel.”

An Honor To ServeThat’s a philosophy the

company embraces. If anemergency department has aproblem, or needs a product toget a job done, Kussmaul Elec-tronics will try to help.The Auto-Eject is one of

those products. That’s why

Nugent is working on a newSuper Auto-Eject 30 that willbe shown at the Interna-tional Association of FireChiefs show in Denver latethis summer.Picking up a prototype of

the new product from his desk,Nugent explains that becausethe Auto-Eject is so popular,the company needs to simplifyits manufacture to keep upwith demand. They decided tomake some improvements atthe same time.

New Auto-Eject“The new Auto-Eject will be

for vehicles that have higherloads, like air conditioning andheaters, things that need 30amps,” Nugent says. “The newdesign will have a pin that willserve as a plug detector. Thatwill stop any arcing when youconnect or disconnect the cord.”The weatherproof cover and

the box that houses the unitwill also be improved.Kussmaul hopes to have

them on the market by the endof the year. “We’ll certainlyhave a sample and a prototypefor people to see at IAFC,” saysNugent.Kussmaul Electronics also

manufactures and markets anair compressor to hold pres-sure in apparatus air brakes.

Ernie Kussmaul tells about adepartment where they wereselling the chargers that com-plained about air brakes leak-ing down “and they couldn’tget out of the house when theair was low.”When the depart-ment asked if Kussmaul coulddo something to keep the air-brakes up the answer, asalways, was “‘sure we can.’That’s when we came up withthe Auto-Pump.”

Auto-PumpAuto-Pump is a registered

trademark of Kussmaul Elec-tronics Co. Inc.The Auto-Pump can be

mated with the Kussmaulautomatic charger or boughtindividually and retrofitted toexisting apparatus.

John Leavy tests a Super 30Auto-Eject in the recentexpansion to the plant.

6 Fire Apparatus

Ernie Kussmaul is workingon an improvement to theAuto-Pump system to demon-strate at the IAFC show as well.In his corner office, with

walls covered with photosKussmaul has taken over theyears of family and places he’sbeen, he picks up a black con-traption with wires stickingout from his desk covered withpapers and printed material.

Auto Drain System“This is this week’s project,”

Kussmaul says, holding thedevice up. It is an auto drainsystem that removes moistureand water from the compres-sor before it sends the air intothe vehicle-mounted air tanks.“Air compressors accumu-

late moisture and we need tomake sure our Auto-Pumpdoesn’t put any more mois-ture into the air brake system,”

Kussmaul says. Whenevertheir electrically-operatedpump shuts down, it automat-ically drains the bowl.Kussmaul says that the idea

for the auto-drain came froma customer who said he had aproblem getting firefighters tomanually drain the compres-sor bowl because it was diffi-cult to reach.“With this product, they

won’t have to worry aboutthat anymore,” Kussmaul says.Nugent says the company’s

success comes from the rela-tionship it has with firedepartments and respondingto their needs.“The real way we became

successful is to market directto the fire departments,”Nugent says. Departments

Neal Tuttle installs a coolingfan in a charger case.

Weatherproof caps are theonly part of Kussmaul’s Auto-Eject system visible on vehi-cles. (Fire Apparatus Photo) Chief Engineer Gary Doyle

designs all the printed cir-cuit boards used in Kuss-maul’s products.

spec Kussmaul equipmentand apparatus builders havestarted to use their productsas a standard, he says.Kussmaul Electronics sup-

plies parts to all the majorbuilders and will work withany interested builder.Products are also marketed

through literally thousands offire and emergency servicedealers across the country andin Hawaii and Alaska.The Kussmaul name is the

most dominant in the market-place, Nugent says, but he saysdepartments should ask forKussmaul products by name.“There are cheaper prod-

ucts out there and it’s all amatter of money. There areother manufacturers outthere, but they’re not as big in

this market and their name isnot as prevalent.”While most of the com-

pany’s products are solddomestically, there is a growing

George Christensen, Kussmaul’s senior machinist, drills a hole in a battery chargerheat sink. He is also a volunteer firefighter with the Holbrook Fire Department on LongIsland, N.Y. (Fire Apparatus Photos by Medora Hebert)

Fire Apparatus 7

work diligently to improveproducts and make emer-gency vehicles operate better.“Any darn fool can design

something to solve a problem,but you might end up with aspaceship,” Kussmaul says.“Sure, it will do all the thingsyou want it to do, but nobodywill buy it. It’s too big. It’s toocostly. It’s too whatever.”The formula, which Kuss-

maul Electronics devised, is,

“You have to put in just theright number of features,including only those that willgive value to the customer.That’s how we operate here —giving the customer the bestproducts and the best valuefor their money. It’s prettysimple actually.”

market abroad. KussmaulElectronics has a strongfoothold in the United King-dom with an aggressive andsavvy dealer, according toErnie Kussmaul, and is lookingto expand throughout Europe.“This year for the first time

we’re going to Interschutz [theworld’s largest fire tradeshow] in Germany and I’mhoping to find a dealer whocan handle sales in that part ofthe world,” says Kussmaul.Kussmaul products are also

sold by dealers in Italy, Israeland Asia to give the companya strong and growing interna-tional market.

Off-Shoot ProductsIn addition to the pumps

and the chargers, Kussmaulhas a large number of “off-shoot” products, as Nugentcalls them, most notablythe Safety Lock for emerg-ency vehicles.“For police cars and ambu-

lances, the Safety Lock isimportant,” Nugent says.“Since September 11, vehiclesecurity is very important.With our product, you canengage the Safety Lock and

remove the key while it’s run-ning. But, if someone tries tomove it, it shuts down. It sim-ply parallels the ignition.”

Load ManagersKussmaul Electronics also

has a line of load managementdevices that help keep batter-ies up by turning off low pri-ority equipment through aseries of load-shedding elec-tric sequencing.“It works like someone

shutting off things when thealternator output drops, onlyit does it automatically,”Nugent says.Kussmaul Electronics also

has similar devices, onecalled the Soft Start, whichpowers up vehicle electricalloads quicker and shuts themdown slower to avoid bigfluctuations in alternatorcurrent that can damagevehicle electrical systems.A device that controls the

idle speed of vehicles’engines to increase alterna-tor output is also availablefrom Kussmaul.Nugent says that product

automatically increases enginespeed to get more power outof the alternator. He says it isparticularly well suited forambulances to keep the bat-tery voltage up and properpower to the accessories onthe unit.

Radio TransmittersRecently, Kussmaul got into

the business of manufacturingradio frequency transmittersthat will automatically opengarage doors, turn on exhaustfans, or control traffic lights infront of a station. Again, theproduct was developed fordepartments with needs,according to Nugent.The axiom, “necessity is the

mother of all inventions” cer-tainly applies to KussmaulElectronics as staff members

Jeanette Singh assembles a PC board. Kussmaul installsall electronic components on the boardsit uses. (Fire Apparatus Photos by Medora Hebert)

Jeff Weir silk screens the company label and logo on acharger case. Weir cuts, by hand, all the templates for theproduct labels. (Fire Apparatus Photos by Medora Hebert)

Efrain Bermudez assemblescharger components.

Kussmaul Electronics:800-346-0857www.kussmaul.com