By Steve Bornhoft
In Ohio, a company in the business of selling and servicing fire safety equipment conducts annual inspections and maintenance of self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBAs) used by firefighters in a three-state area.
To do so, it employs OMNICHECK, a machine developed and marketed by Panama City Beach-based ATOR Labs, a product of the TechFarms business incubator. As of early January, ATOR Labs had furnished quotes for 94 machines; the Ohio company accounts for 20 of them.
SCBAs, like scuba gear, are made up of a tank, regulator, second-stage regulator and a mask. They are vital to firefighters entering smoke-filled rooms. Regular inspections of SCBAs were mandated about 25 years ago by the National Fire Protection Association owing to equipment malfunctions that occurred while firefighters were engaged, said ATOR Labs founder Rob Moran.
ATOR Labs’ signature platform product is its Automated Breathing and Metabolic Simulator (ABMS). About the size of a refrigerator, it emulates a human consuming oxygen, producing carbon dioxide and engaging in other metabolic functions. The machine gauges the effort required to breathe with a respiratory protective device (RPD) along a range of respiratory rates from resting to maximum exertion.
The ABMS has a baby brother, OMNICHECK, that was developed in response to a suggestion made by Bruce Schorer of Pensacola, who once ran a gas filter company and volunteers with the Service Corps of Retired Executives, a partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration.
“Picture that guy seated next you on a plane,” Moran said. “He’s wearing a Tommy Bahama shirt, a pair of khakis, old worn-out loafers and a Rolex and by the time you land, you will have bought whatever he is selling. That’s Bruce.”
Schorer recommended that the ABMS be miniaturized. The resulting, easily portable OMNICHECK is well suited for use by technicians going from fire station to fire station doing maintenance work on SCBAs and for many other applications.
“OMNICHECK really is omni; it tests everything,” Moran said. “From an N95 face mask all the way to a closed-circuit rebreather and everything in between.”
That versatility is but one aspect of ATOR Labs’ unique position in the RPD testing marketplace.
ISO 16900 series standards, written and promulgated by the International Organization for Standardization, apply to respiratory protective devices testing. Globally, only two machines, the ABMS and OMNICHECK, meet those standards.
Adds Moran, “Our units meet not only today’s global performance standards, but are designed to meet new and evolving ISO requirements.”
In 2022, the U.S. Department of Defense published MIL-STD-3050A, a standard that establishes testing requirements for an Aircrew Breathing Systems (ACBS) that “deliver breathing gas to the masks of aircrew in order to protect them against impaired performance due to adverse physiological states such as hypoxia, hyperoxia, hypercapnia, and hypocapnia.”
To ATOR Labs’ benefit, the military standard mandates that any “dynamic mask testing machine” used on ACBSs be ISO 16900 compliant, effectively requiring that an ATOR Labs product be used. Moran anticipates that MIL-STD-3050A will enable ATOR Labs to sell hundreds of units to public and private entities around the world.
Multiple sources of demand are taxing ATOR Labs’ manufacturing capacity. At present, the business can produce about 150 machines per year, turning around an ABMS in six months and an OMNICHECK in 45 days. The business, aided by TechFarms Capital, is engaged in a capital raise aimed at increasing that capacity.
Moran is grateful for the assistance that TechFarms and TechFarms Capital, an investor in ATOR Labs, have provided him.
“They have been invaluable partners in our progress,” Moran said. “Their unique insights into manufacturing, electrical design and programming have shortened our runway to success by five years.”
Kelly Reeser, general partner at TechFarms Capital, and TechFarms/TechFarms Capital founder Steve Millaway were on hand at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in Pensacola recently when Moran represented ATOR Labs in a pitch competition presented by Space Florida.
The Takeoff: Northwest Florida Pitch Day was held to connect entrepreneurs with investors and to mobilize investment capital in the region. Ator Labs came away with the top prize of $20,000 on the strength, Reeser said, of a “superior business model.”
ATOR Labs employs 11 people, most of whom worked previously as divers or engineers at Naval Support Activity Panama City. An electrical engineer and a programmer are on standby.
“I employ some really smart dudes,” Moran said. “My knack is for putting together teams.” That was a skill he used as a senior chief during his career as a Navy diver.
He noted his experience as a member of a team that recovered the turret from the Civil War ironclad battleship, the USS Monitor, off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
As he ramps up manufacturing, Moran plans to involve firefighters, anticipating that for them, building machines related to firefighter safety will be a point of pride. To that end, he has spoken with the fire chief in Lynn Haven, Florida.
“ATOR Labs employees will handle quality assurance,” Moran explained. “And, for every machine that the firefighters build, we’ll donate to local fire departments for equipment purchases.”
Plus, in the interest of teambuilding, ATOR Labs will treat the firefighter/assemblers to the annual FDIC International fire conference in Indianapolis.
Moran recalls a moment when he was an aspiring Navy diver, called a “mudpup.” A senior chief turned to him and said, “Moran, you’re just too stupid to quit.”
That stubbornness, he said, has been a big factor in his entrepreneurial success.
“I come from a background where mission accomplishment is your priority, but the people are a priority as well,” Moran said. “It’s mission first, people always. When that’s your mindset, it will carry you a long way out here in the real world.”
Steve Bornhoft is the vice president for marketing and communication at TechFarms.
