Babington Technologies’ Equipment Feeds Military Troops
Well-fed troops are a must in any military operation, and serving up those meals has gotten easier, faster and safer, thanks to Babington Technologies.
Using a heating system manufactured in Rocky Mount, military cooks can prepare twice as much food in half the time, company owner Bob Babington says.
“We’ve been selling stuff to the Marine Corps since 1995, but now all branches of the service use our equipment,” Babington says.
Babington equipment also has been used to feed hurricane survivors in New Orleans after Katrina and military troops in Washington during the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
“They wanted to use our equipment, and we fed something like 50,000 meals [during the inauguration],” Babington says.
The experience in New Orleans led to a new product for the company – a complete mobile kitchen that serves up to 1,000 meals per hour.
“When we came away from Katrina, we saw there was no good mobile kitchen available,” Babington says. “The Army’s mobile kitchen produced air temperatures of 145 degrees with only two burners.”
Setting out to develop a better product, Babington came out with the Single Pallet Expeditionary Kitchen, or SPEK, designed for mass feeding of troops, refugees and victims of natural disasters.
“Our mobile kitchen makes no noise, and there’s no heat buildup in the kitchen,” Babington says. “It runs on diesel, and there’s no smoke, no odor and no set up time.”
The company’s products are based on technology Babington developed in the late 1960s, following his two-year stint in the Air Force and more than a decade as part of NASA’s Apollo lunar landing team.
Babington’s burners employ a patented atomization process that produces a constant and uniform mist, ensuring that the fuel used for combustion is emitted efficiently and safely throughout the cooking process.
Babington burners operate with a variety of fuels, including kerosene and diesel, and emit little to no smoke or carbon dioxide due to the efficiency of the burn, says David Vick, a manager at the plant, located just off North Wesleyan Boulevard.
“The burner is the thing,” Vick says. “Nobody has topped it yet.”
Babington had been contracting out its metal fabrication work to a plant in Rocky Mount, when the local manufacturer ceased operations in 2005.
Rather than find another supplier, Babington decided to purchase the fabrication plant, in part to have more control over his own products, he says.
Now the plant manufactures its cooking appliances “using the finest sheet metal equipment you can buy,” he adds.
Babington Technologies also has an office in Virginia and a sales office in Florida.
The manufacturing operation employs about 25 workers, many of whom were already working at the plant at the time he purchased it. Babington is quick to praise the work ethic and skills of the local workforce.
“They are really the best you will find anywhere,” Babington says.
Story by Renee Elder
