Amerex Corporation is a large American manufacturer of

firefighting Firefighting is a profession aimed at controlling and extinguishing fire. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter or fireman. Firefighters typically undergo a high degree of technical training. This involves structural fir ...

products. Based in

Trussville, Alabama Trussville is a city in Jefferson and St. Clair counties in the State of Alabama. It is a suburb of Birmingham and part of the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its population at the 2020 census was 26,123. Geography Trus ...

, Amerex makes hand-portable and wheeled

fire extinguisher A fire extinguisher is a handheld active fire protection device usually filled with a dry or wet chemical used to extinguish or control small fires, often in emergencies. It is not intended for use on an out-of-control fire, such as one which ha ...

s for commercial and industrial environments, as well as fire and explosion suppression vehicle systems for military use. Other products include

fire suppression systems Fire suppression systems are used to extinguish, control, or in some cases, entirely prevent fires from spreading or occurring. Fire suppression systems have an incredibly large variety of applications, and as such, there are many different types ...

for restaurants, gas detection systems, and

fire detection Fire detectors sense one or more of the products or phenomena resulting from fire, such as smoke, heat, infrared and/or ultraviolet Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanome ...

devices. McWane, Inc. acquired Amerex in 1999.

History

Amerex was founded in 1971 by Ned Paine and George Baureis. Paine was part of the Amerex team until his retirement in September 1999. He sold the company to McWane, Inc. the same year. In 2010, Amerex began emerging as a major military subcontractor after developing a fire suppression system being deployed on American military vehicles often targeted by mines and homemade bombs in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

. The company is a subcontractor of the

Oshkosh Corporation Oshkosh Corporation, formerly Oshkosh Truck, is an American industrial company that designs and builds specialty trucks, military vehicles, truck bodies, airport fire apparatus, and access equipment. The corporation also owns Pierce Manufact ...

, a maker of military vehicles. The vehicles use safety equipment, including fire suppression gear, made by Amerex for Oshkosh vehicles. Optical sensors are used to detect fires and explosions instantly, which then directs a series of jets and hoses to put out the fire with a concealed substance. In 2011, Amerex acquired The Solberg Company, another firefighting equipment company based in

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

."The Solberg Company Breaks Ground for Manufacturing Plant and Headquarters in Howard"
Retrieved January 28, 2012. According to former Amerex President Bill Beyer, the fire extinguisher sales tend to follow the general economy and growth in new buildings. Amerex produces 2.5 million commercial and industrial fire extinguishers each year.

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://amerex-fire.com
Amerex Defense
Manufacturing companies established in 1971 Emergency services equipment makers Manufacturing companies based in Alabama Firefighting in the United States American companies established in 1971 1971 establishments in Alabama 1999 mergers and acquisitions