Got HME?

Do you have HME laying around, do you work with that on a regular basis, then you're going to want to strap in and hear what's going on with the latest with Morphix Texanology and Kim Chapman here today, so get ready and get ready to take some notes. This is EOD Gear Improvised. Everyone in EOD has a laser-calibrated eyeball and plenty of attitude to go with it. I'm seriously, can we close them up now? Fire at a whole EOD-gear.com initial success or total failure EOD here improvised with your host, former Navy EOD Tech and owner of EOD Gear, Steve Cassidy. Alright, hey everybody, thanks for tuning in, I've got Kim Chapman from Morphix and we're going to talk about HMEs that's been in the news for the last 20 years, so everybody's pretty familiar with it, but we're going to talk about what's going on currently. Thank you, Kim, thanks for joining us, appreciate you coming in, so how long have you been at Morphix now, because I mean we've had you and our kits for quite a while. I am going on almost 30 years. Wow, so you started when you were eight, that's awesome. Well I started as a chemist, my mom said my mouth would get me into trouble, that got me into product management, and now here I am doing sales and marketing. And still getting in trouble, mom was right. Well, I mean it's just been great, we've been working with you for years, you're in a bunch of our kits, we have our HME kits and hand entry kits and stuff like that, so we're very familiar with your kits, but I do want to talk about them some more because I think understanding the best way to use your kits and what they're detecting, and then also I want to touch faces on how we're deploying the technology, so I know you have it in other ways in just the standard test kit, so what's going on with Tracex, what are you guys seeing right now? With Tracex I think the bulk of our work is either going, the bulk of our product is going over to, we are sending some to Ukraine, the state department is using a lot of them in embassies because they're really easy to use, and then our staple of course is our first responders, our bomb techs and such locally and statewide nationwide. Okay, fantastic, so this is going to cover the whole spectrum from EOD cross-militarian state plus our public safety bomb techs, whether they fall under police or fire in some cases. Absolutely. Yeah, and for those of you that are listening, if you're going to the IABTI next week down at Punt-Fedray, Florida, I don't know if I'm saying that right, but we'll both be down there exhibiting, so if you do point on that, please stop by and seek him. So when people are using Tracex, very easy to use, you know, you can go down there and test, take a swab or a sample, is that the best way to use Tracex? What we've seen and heard from our customers is either the operator themselves when it's using the kit, we'll do the swab, we've also seen it put on robot, so any robot that has a finger clamp can go down and of course the powder, they're just going to dab in the powder or if they see a residue, it's just running the wand back and forth and then bringing the sample back to the operator and having them run the kit. So they're just going to run the kit, they'll just run the robot down, get the sample, do what else they need to do, come back. Exactly. Okay. Well, that sounds great. The beauty of our kit is you only need the one swab, so the one, what we call a collector because it's actually a hard plastic, that is going to detect all the major classes and explosives and precursors at one time, so you don't have to make multiple trips down to infield to collect your sample. So when you're done and you're going to know what you have? Exactly. All right. You know, it's funny, it's talking about this because I have the kits and we have the test kits here. So if anybody's here in the Nashville area, you can swing on by and, you know, we have those, the test kits available. So do you like these, I mean, these are in your kits, I mean, are you looking at having just the public safety bomb guys doing this or you having the SWAT guys use these, maybe as part as, you know, as an entry team? We actually had a SWAT guy here, I sure one of our marketing people did a blog and had a SWAT guy come in here and he was talking about, yes, he uses them as well. So I think it's pretty widespread and I think it's because it's so simple. You know, it's literally you are doing your swab close in the kit, breaking the ampules and waiting for a color change. So the design is that you don't have to be highly trained in order to use it just like a seven minute training video and your pro nice. So we were discussing earlier before we got started, we were talking about chameleon. Can you jump on that a little bit and, you know, because I think increasing a team's capability is really important in a cost effective way to increase, you know, like say you have a police department, maybe they have a bomb squad, maybe they don't, but this might be a way to increase the capability, the hazmat team or to know better when to bring in the bomb squad. Absolutely. Absolutely. So our chameleon was actually designed under a contract with the U.S. Navy, so these are your tax dollars at work. And what they were looking for was the ability to detect up to 10 different chemicals or classes of chemicals with one device. So this can be either worn as an arm band or a Velcro, you could put it onto an existing patch or even stick it on a wall or a robot, send it in. And each sensor is what we call a cassette. So it's a small plastic piece that has our formulation on the inside. And those just slide into the arm band and it will hold 10 different ones. And the training for this is if you see one color in the sensor window, the chemical is not there or it's loose, it's not there at a level that's going to harm you. Or if you see two colors in the window, so basically it's split in the center. And if one side is different than the other, then that chemical is there and you need to take action. Probably one of the coolest things that I've heard our customers talk about or operators is that they use this as that first tool because there's a lot of situations where you don't want to bring some equipment in there because they can't handle a highly acidic environment or a can't handle a highly basic environment. So having at least a rudimentary idea of what you have, that will give you a lot of information as to what tools to bring in. If you need to bring in other tools to determine the exact concentration. So it's going to show up in real time as you enter, you have your perimeter set and as you're going in, it's going to show up as you're going in if there is something. So you can start getting a indication. So yeah, the higher the concentration, the faster the response. Okay. So you get actually. You've got a great point. Oh, no, go ahead. You've got a great point about the perimeter because one of our customers up in Chicago said that he used to have match, he gives the chameleon to police officers and other people that are maybe directing the folks away from the scene. And he says, you know, I've expanded my forest by giving these tools that they can simply get on the radio and call me and let me know, hey, this one on the RBN's changed color. So it gives him a lot more resources with a tool that is very easy. Yeah, like that because they're going to set a perimeter. So they're going to block streets, sidewalks, whatever that is and they'll have detection built into their to their existing force. That's a great force multiplier. So maybe we should make sure that's in our hazmat kits. And honestly, I mean, I think it's just a great way to increase your capability as an agency, you know, whether you're a, you know, a small city or a county or, you know, maybe you don't expect terrorism that you expect other chemicals. Are we going to detect chemicals or just explosives or precursors? With the hazmat, I mean, with the chameleon, we have a couple of kits. One way probably make the most is our hazmat kit. And it's detecting toxic industrial chemicals. So not chemical warfare agents, but toxic industrial chemicals. So think about chlorine, acids, bases, hydrogen sulfide, phosphine, phosphine. Nasty stuff. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And then we also have a, yeah. We also have a clan that's kept. So we're not detecting actual plant, the methamphetamine. We are detecting the chemicals that would be used either to make math. Or if you were, if the bad guy was shutting down the plant, I mean, the operation real quick, the gases that would be released when that happens. Then we also have a chemical suicide kit. And then we have a fire investigator safety kit. And that would be for those investigators going in after the, after the fire. And one of my favorite parts of that kit is that we have a hydrogen cyanide cassette in there, which is, you know, there's so much documentation out there about these high rates of blood cancers among firefighters. Yeah. That's a big culprit. And so it, that's one that, I guess, is kind of near and dear to my heart that we're able to detect that, you know. Big time. Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. That is. Well, so are you, I know, so we'll both be at IBTI next week down south of Jacksonville. What are the places you, are you going to be this year? Well, we were just at the hazmat conference over in, in Baltimore. And let's see. We do attend a lot of the IBTIs. And even the regional ones or just the demonstration because we, we love to get our product out there where it's really hands on. So not even so much as a trade show, but really more exercises. So folks can, you know, get in there and we'll put out some stuff for them to actually do some swabs and run the kids themselves. I think that's when you really understand the technology is when you're, when you see it in action. When you're seeing it. Yeah. So we're going to be at the NTOA, the National National Tactical Officers Association. That one is in Aurora, Colorado. And then I think before that, it's like two weeks prior, you're going to be out west a lot at Reno, Nevada for the National Guard. It's the National Guard conference on each one. Yeah. Are you going to be at either one of those? We are not. Well, you know, you know, we'll represent you. We got that. Yeah. So. And represent us really. Well, we try. We try. But I think, you know, I think this is a great opportunity. You know, so if somebody, you know, has a question, encouraging call us, but they can also call you direct. And how, how to, what's the best way to get a hold of you or somebody, you know, because people are going to have questions. They want to understand capabilities and, and dosage and time and distance and everything else with that. You know, how to, what's the best way to get a, get a hold of you? So the number at more fix is. We're in Virginia Beach, Virginia. So it's 757. 431. 2260. And then my cell phone is 757. 675. 0473. And emails. Good to. K. Chapman at morphtech.com. Okay. And if anybody has any questions, I mean, you guys can drop me a line as well. We'll get you plugged in. Get, get all your questions answered and go from there. Any other shows you got coming up the rest of the year that you're aware of? Well, what we do also is, you know, we sell products for industrial hygiene, employee protection. So we, we do a lot too with our, we have. Some of the badges that employees wear in chemical plants and refineries. So we do have some shows like that coming up to you. Okay. So probably scare everybody if I show up and. One thing I should note is that the IBTI booths are right next to each other. Oh, fantastic. All right. We're going to have fun. Yeah. That'll be a good time. Well, yeah, last word. I guess if you, if you have anything else that you want to put out there. I just, I just really want to encourage everybody. If you're looking for a way to increase the capability of your agency, no matter how big or how small you are. This is a, this is a fantastic way to do it. So Kim, last words, anything you got? Yeah, I think for us is, you know, one of the things that we talk about around here all the time is we, we get to serve heroes every day. And so, you know, if you're listening to this and you're doing this line of work then. For us, you're a hero and we're grateful for your service. Whatever you're doing it. Thank you. Yeah, we're a big fan of people who willingly walk into harm's way on a daily basis. Man, we got your back. Absolutely. Thank God for them. Well, fantastic. I'm going to play a quick outro. And Kim, thanks again and we'll, we'll talk real soon. Yes, thank you. Steve Cassidy. A former Navy EOD tech and owner. Owner of EOD gear initial success or total failure. Two locations. One in Franklin and one in Huntsville. The website is EOD-gear.com. Find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter. EOD gear has customers from around the globe. Until next time, this is EOD gear improvised. Binding off.