SFA, Inc.-Defense Products Division (SFA-DPD) has received a $39 million order under an existing contract for 95 Tactical Water Purification Systems (TWPS) to be used by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. The TWPS units will be manufactured at SFA-DPD's facility located in Frederick, Md.
The TWPS units are a response to the U.S. military requirement for a safe, reliable supply of potable water to support various units during combat and non-combat operations. The recent TWPS order will be used to provide highly mobile tactical water supply in support of the new fast-responding modular Army and the Marine Corps. TWPS purifies water from fresh, brackish and seawater sources, including water that has been contaminated with nuclear, biological and chemical warfare agents. As the prime contractor under the TWPS contract, SFA-DPD provides services for the design, development and production of the latest reverse osmosis (RO) water purification system.
SFA-DPD has teamed with Aqua-Chem, one of the world's leaders in water purification technology and whose role as a subcontractor is in the area of system design and fabrication.
Each TWPS unit is fully self-contained and includes a raw water delivery system, a treatment system consisting of state-of-the-art micro-filtration, RO, potable water storage and delivery system. The units produce 1,500 gal per hour of potable water at any temperature, an improvement compared to the 600 gal per hour rate of earlier units. It is replacing these earlier units two for one, with a resulting reduction in force structure and logistics costs. A three-person crew can set up a TWPS unit and produce water in approximately one and a half hours. Transport of the units can be via ground, rail, air or sea with the proper configurations, and deployment of the winter kit enables TWPS to operate at temperatures down to –250° F.
In addition to military use, the water supply function of TWPS has applications to disaster relief both within the U.S. and internationally. The micro-filtration system has already proven its capability in disaster relief during the Red River flood in the Midwest several years ago.
Source: SFA, Inc.- Defense Products Division