About Us
Facilities and Equipment
Mecar USA is a purpose built, green field energetic campus that was selected and designed to perform melt pour, x-ray, explosives pressing, pyrotechnic mixing and pressing, and load, assemble and pack of all associated products. The campus currently has the complete LAP and pyrotechnic infrastructure online and is standing up the explosives casting and pressing beginning this year.
Load, Assemble & Pack. The Load, Assemble, & Pack Building as designed and purpose built is comprised of two components; the blast cells Bays A-E which are constructed in armored concrete in accordance with TM 5-1300 and an open 4000 sq. ft assembly area. The LAP building in total was designed to be a high tech, clean, multi-functional building capable of LAPing and propellant dosing for any medium or large caliber product. Conductive floors are installed throughout the building of an ESD polymeric material which in addition to being conductive is cast to facilitate cleaning with no cracks or crevices in which explosives could lodge. Both the open LAP bay and the propellant loading bay have independent climate control and humidity systems to ensure that the propellant and all associated energetic material will be kept at a constant 21±2°C and 55±5% RH throughout the entire propellant loading and LAP process. All bays are electrically wired with explosion proof fixtures and all wiring and electrical equipment is in adherence to NFPA 70, NEC Class 1, Division 1.
Melt Pour Building. The Melt Pour Building design is a 4000 square ft, two story building with similar Class 1, Division 1 electrical and polymeric ESD conductive floor as the LAP building. An 8 inch, sand filled, cement block enclosed control room will house all support equipment some of which includes a hot water heating system for Composition B/PAX-34 melting and compressor for pneumatic controls and processes. Wall openings into the main casting area are sealed using ROXTEC fireproof transition material. The melt pour system itself is built in a mezzanine format with the upper level housing the metal detection equipment for screening the Composition B/PAX-34, twin rotary melting vessels and the hot water heated casting vessel to bring the composition to temperature prior to body filling.
X-Ray Building. The X-Ray building design is similar to the other explosive rated buildings with Class 1, Division 1 electrical and polymeric ESD conductive flooring. The building will allow for clear segregation and storage of incoming and outgoing material to ensure 100% radiographic screening occurs as well as to improve throughput with the objective of exceeding the casting and LAPing rates. The x-ray equipment will encompass a 450kv source and will be set up to perform digital and film radiography depending on TDP requirements. Mecar’s vast experience in digital radiography gives us the expertise in-house to move towards this technology providing improvements in throughput and overall x-ray quality. The 450kv x-ray source will be in lead lined cabinet with safety interlocks to eliminate any chance of radiation exposure. This system will be more than adequate to generate high quality images for 120mm and greater.
Pyrotechnic Press Building. Designed and constructed, along with the other production buildings, this building is built with the internal and external eight inch concrete filled block walls, has explosion proof fixtures, conductive floors, and blow-out windows. This building has 1575 sq ft of workspace and is constructed with a centralized floor space surrounded by five internal bays that allows for separate tasks to be conducted while also allowing for production efficiencies of material flow. This building is also equipped with an externally accessed maintenance room that contains equipment for heating, air conditioning, humidification, and de-humidification.
Pyrotechnic Mix Building. This building, as with the Pyro Press Building, is of the same material construction, conductive flooring, explosion proof fixtures, blow-out windows, and externally accessed maintenance room. This building has 1575 sq ft of workspace that contains a large central floor space containing two internal and two externally accessed bays. This is ideal for use pyrotechnic mixing, granulation, and or pressing to occur with sequence or simultaneously.
Pyrotechnic Assembly Building. This pyro building has the same safety considerations as the other production buildings. This building also has 1575 sq ft of workspace but is built with two small storage rooms and contains a large open floor space with a double door bay. This double door bay has been previously been used to contain automated equipment for processing pyrotechnic cartridges. This un-manned operation was able to occur while occupied supportive operations existed within the same building.
LAP Support Buildings 3 & 4. Buildings 3 & 4 are constructed so as to be easily adapted, if necessary, to meet BATF requirements for Type 1 magazines. The building dimensions are 38’ by 48’ with the roof height at 10’ at the eves. Masonry wall construction consists of 8 inch cement blocks with all hollow spaces filled with well-tamped, coarse, dry sand. There are no interior walls and they have an insulated, fabricated metal roof. These buildings are currently configured for the storage of 12,040 lbs of class 1.2 ammunition and 70,000 lbs of class 1.3 explosives, respectively.
Low Explosive Storage Buildings. These two buildings are constructed with the same eight inch concrete filled block walls and are located as such to provide minimum safe distances to the pyrotechnic production buildings while allowing for ease of logistical support. These two buildings are identical in layout and contain a large floor space used as an above ground magazine for the storage of 1.3 and 1.4 explosives.
High Explosives Magazines. To support both inbound Composition B/PAX-34 and outbound finished product a series of earth covered 1.1 rated magazines are planned to meet the throughput requirements for storage onsite. Offsite storage in our magazines at Highland Industrial Park will be used for movement of full truckload quantities awaiting final shipment to the appropriate depot.
Fuel/Oxidizer Storage. This building is constructed of the same materials used for the low and high explosive storage buildings. This storage building consists of four individual bays for the storage of fuels and oxidizers in support of the pyrotechnic operations. One of these bays is electrically supplied to support a stand-alone mechanical operation such as drying.
Field Office and Inert Assembly Building. This inert assembly building has 4000 square feet of climate controlled workspace for associated non-hazardous operations, maintenance, surge storage, quality control etc. as well as field office space for operations and quality control.
Administrative Offices and Inert Assembly Building. Similar to the Field Office this building houses the executive and administrative offices and has 9500 square feet of climate controlled workspace for inert surge storage, conditioning, shipping and receiving, quality control, etc.
Inert Warehouse. Mecar USA has an offsite 22,000 sq ft warehouse within seven miles of the energetic campus. This warehouse is for the storage of inert supportive materials.
Inert Assembly Building. Paired with the warehouse offsite is a 5,000 sq ft climate controlled inert assembly building with forklift access from the warehouse. This area is currently used for the preparation of packaging materials and projectiles for the M467A1 and M1040 105mm LAPs as well as for other DOD associated contracts.
Offsite Explosive Storage. Mecar USA leases three Type I military igloos at Highland Industrial Park (formerly Shumaker Naval Ammunition Depot) in East Camden, Arkansas. Each of these igloos has a storage capability of 250,000 lbs of class 1.1 explosives. East Camden is within a three hour drive of the Mecar USA facility.
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