Q. What is the official name of your company?
A. Det-Tronics
Q. Is your firm a subsidiary or affiliate of other companies? If so, please name those firms and their relationship to your company.
A. Det-Tronics is part of UTC Building & Industrial Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corporation, a leading provider to the aerospace and building systems industries worldwide.
Q. What do you most want people to know about your company?
A. Det-Tronics is a global leader in industrial hazard safety solutions, providing flame detection, gas detection and hazard mitigation systems for critical industrial applications. We design, build, test, and commission SIL-2 flame and gas safety systems that range from conventional panels to fault-tolerant, addressable systems. Our flame and gas detectors are globally certified to the latest product approval standards.
Q. Where is your company located?
A. Our headquarters is in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Q. Where are your other major locations?
A. We have major sales and service offices in Houston, Texas, London and Singapore, as well as other offices in Calgary, Anchorage, and cities in Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
Q. What year was the company founded and by whom?
A. Det-Tronics was founded in 1973 by three engineers who adapted an existing flame detection technology to a new segment.
Q. What is your company’s primary business activity?
A. We design, build, test and commission SIL-2 capable flame and gas safety products that range from conventional panels to fault-tolerant, addressable systems that are globally certified.
Q. Are there important projects the company is currently a part of or has done recently?
A. Our flame and gas detection products and our FM-listed Det-Tronics Eagle Quantum Premier® (EQP) fire- and gas-safety controller are used now by a major oil and gas producer in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
Q. How many employees does your company have?
A. Det-Tronics has about 350 employees, 16 offices, and we work with over 75 representatives, globally.
Q. Is your company expanding any of its operations or locations?
A. Det-tronics recently opened a new office in Anchorage, Alaska to provide service, design and systems manufacturing. We also have a presence in Kenai, Alaska, which allows us to be very responsive to customers in the Cook Inlet region. In addition, we have expanded our manufacturing floor in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Q. Is the company changing any of its services or products?
A. Det-Tronics is constantly developing and improving its products and services. Recently released products include the following: The FlexSight™ LS2000 Line-of-Sight Infrared Gas Detector, which features improved optical field of view (±0.8 degree), an advanced housing design, simplified mount and breakthrough alignment tolerance; the FlexSonic® Acoustic Gas Leak Detector, which analyzes 24 discrete frequency bands in the ultrasonic spectrum, accurately identifying the sound of a gas leak while ignoring other nuisance environmental sounds; and the Det-Tronics Eagle Quantum Premier® fire- and gas-safety controller, now available with Ethernet connectivity, a flexible, distributed intelligent system that provides flame/gas detection, alarm signaling, fault notification and extinguishing agent release control. It is rated for hazardous Class 1/Division 2 and Class 1/Zone 2 locations, and certified to ANSI/NFPA 72 National Fire Alarm code.
Q. What is your company’s main strength or its edge over the competition?
A. Our focus is to help our customers mitigate the risks of gas leaks and fires, enhance safety, and protect assets. Det-Tronics invests significantly in engineering, research and development and certification testing. Our experienced system engineers analyze, design and implement site-specific solutions that are certified for hazardous locations and applications all over the world. Our dedicated team of project support personnel provide engineering services from project definition to systems integration, commissioning and beyond, including formal training, ongoing technical support and field service.
Q. What new markets, clients or projects did your company attract in the last year?
A. In Alaska, much of our growth has been with smaller oil companies that require a system that is cost-effective and flexible. The modular design of the EQP system allows these customers to install a system that can be expanded if needed with minimal engineering and system component costs. We are also supplying full solutions that include suppression from Kidde Fire Systems and water mist fire protection from Marioff along with our EQP-based systems. Kidde and Marioff are also parts of UTC Building & Industrial Systems.
Q. What is the most challenging work/contract the company has undertaken?
A. Det-Tronics has recently undertaken a major project located in northwest Siberia, a very challenging environment with extreme temperature performance requirements.
Q. What are the biggest obstacles to completing work your company undertakes?
A. Our goal is to provide superior safety solutions that are effective, reliable and flexible for the most challenging environments and applications. To do this we must remain connected to our customers and to the certification and regulatory agencies with whom we work globally to ensure that we meet the varied and ever changing global regulatory hazloc and performance requirements for our products.
Q. What do you see as your company’s biggest challenge in the next five years?
A. Fluctuating oil prices are changing the economic environment across the industry. We will continue to provide the right solutions for the required protection that protect both people and our planet.
Q. Does your company have an anniversary or other landmark event coming up?
A. Det-Tronics just celebrated our 40th anniversary in 2014. It has grown steadily over that time.
Q. What is the average length of time employee’s work for the company?
A. We have many employees who have been here between 20 and almost 40 years. The average tenure is more than 10 years.
Q. What is your company’s safety record? What steps does the company take to ensure a safe work environment?
A. We are ISO 140001 certified. We implemented a comprehensive environment, health and safety program to protect our employees from work-related injuries and to ensure a productive workforce; we’ve had no serious injuries and minimal time loss due to work-related injuries.
Q. Has your company been involved in any community projects or charity events?
A. We continually support various charities, including the United Way.
Q. What is the address of your company’s Web site?
A. www.det-tronics.com
