Kim Hotstart Manufacturing Co., the Spokane Valley maker of pre-heaters for diesel engines, projects sales of $25 million this year, nearly doubling its revenue from three years ago. Yet, the company expects that growth to slow in 2007.


Terry Judge, Hotstarts sales and marketing director, says the companys recent robust growth likely will be curtailed next year due to a slowing of the sale of diesel engines because of a national slowdown in construction and a dramatic decrease in truck sales.


The demands for suppliers to the machinery business go down when construction goes down, and the new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emission standards will drop the truck market by 50 percent next year, Judge predicts.


Still, the company expects continuing growth in its international sales, which were negligible five years ago when it first hired two salespeople, one Norwegian and another Japanese, to sell pre-heaters in Europe and Asia. International sales now account for 18 percent of overall revenue, and that percentage is rising.


Also providing cause for optimism is what Judge calls a huge anti-idling effort today. Based on energy losses and pollution concerns, users prefer not to leave engines idling, he says.


A lot of our growth will come through our ability to reduce idling time for locomotives, trucks, and machinery, Judge says. Hotstarts pre-heaters do that by keeping the engines coolant warm, making them easy to start and negating the need for idling.


Hotstart currently employs 130 workers, up from about 100 two years ago. CEO Rick Robinson expects to add as many as eight additional workers next year.


Judge says Hotstart manufactures and sells about 6,000 active parts for its diesel pre-heaters to its base of about 2,000 customers, but its the pre-heaters themselves that generate most of the companys revenue.


Sixty percent of Hotstarts revenue now comes from the sale of pre-heaters for backup diesel generators, which provide power when needed in facilities such as prisons, hospitals, and data centers, Judge says. In other markets that Hotstart serves, it sells its pre-heaters mostly as an add-on unit.


However, because of the importance of having immediate power in certain situations, You can hardly ever find a backup diesel generator without a pre-heater, he says.


Most of the rest of the companys revenue comes from its sale of pre-heaters for locomotives, heavy-duty trucks, heavy machinery, and marine applications. It also makes pre-heaters for compressors used to push natural gas through supply pipes when primary power sources are shut down for maintenance.


Although Hotstart sells block heaters for truck engines through retail distributors, it makes most of its sales directly to original equipment manufacturers all over the U.S. and abroad. If the pre-heaters are for backup generators, theyre normally built into the generators, says Judge. That typically is true with pre-heaters for custom-ordered heavy-duty trucks and other heavy equipment, too.


The company moved to its current location at 5703 E. Alki in 1978, and has expanded its lone structure there several times. The building currently has more than 76,000 square feet of floor space, and the company, which own 6 acres there, has enough space to add another 40,000 square feet, says Judge.


The plans are on the drawing board to make that expansion, he says, but many questions have to be answered before we make that decision. We only have one shift of workers right now, with lots of overtime, and we could go to a second or even a third shift to increase capacity.


Unlike gasoline engines, which are ignited by a spark, diesel engines are ignited by compression, and maintaining a coolant temperature of between 100 degrees and 120 degrees Fahrenheit enables them to start more quickly, says Judge.


Our business used to be crazy in the winter and dead in the summer, but today were busy all year, he says. Our pre-heaters are not a seasonal product. Many businesses today keep their diesel generators in a controlled climate of 68 degrees, and they need those backup generators not only to start, but to provide full power quickly.


Diesel engine pre-heaters sold by Hotstart range in price from $30 for a simple pre-heater for a small truck engine to about $30,000 for a patented diesel driven heating system (DDHS) for locomotives.


The DDHS is the only pre-heater manufactured by Hotstart thats not activated by an electrical connection. It was designed to help railroads deal with problems that cold weather causes for long-haul locomotives and switching engines idling in cold weather. An idling locomotive can consume up to four gallons of diesel an hour, says Judge.


Hotstart engineers, expanding on an invention the company bought rights to in 1996, eliminated the locomotives radiator and developed a heat-exchange arrangement between the big train engine and the three-cylinder DDHS diesel engine. The trains engine keeps the DDHS hot when the train is running, and the DDHS keeps the locomotives essential components warm after the trains engine is shut off.


Kim Hotstarts name comes from the name of a product made by its predecessor, Kimberlin Manufacturing. Stan Power bought Kimberlin and renamed it Kim Hotstart in 1942. The company is now owned by the families of Rick Robinson and of Hotstarts vice president of manufacturing, Jim Russell. Both Robinson and Russell are grandsons of Stan Power, Judge says.


Contact Rocky Wilson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at rockyw@spokanejournal.com.