There was a buzz about this year’s TREXPO East, before, during, and after the event. Attendees at the three-day conference and expo—which was held in the D.C. suburb of Chantilly, Va. in late August—agreed on one thing: This was a TREXPO to remember.
Many things made this year’s TREXPO East memorable. The classes and hands-on training workshops were well attended and well received, the keynote presentations by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman and Col. Danny McKnight were inspiring and passionate, and the range demos on Thursday were punctuated by the performance of a human torch. But what made this year’s TREXPO East truly exceptional was the wide variety of new and new to TREXPO tactical and patrol products on display at the show.
Arctic Fire
Thermo Wear
It’s no exaggeration to say that Arctic Fire was the most entertaining exhibitor at this year’s TREXPO. On the show floor, the company played video of its Thermo Wear fireproof clothing being sprayed with lighter fluid and ignited. It also showed footage of both Nomex and Thermo Wear being heated with a blow torch. Nomex lost.
But Arctic Fire saved its best stuff for a demo at the range. The company hired a stunt man, Kid Richmond, to perform as a human torch while wearing Thermo Wear. Richmond was painted with white gas and diesel fuel and set ablaze. He suffered only superficial burns to his face where the fire blew up under his Thermo Wear mask. He shrugged the minor burns off as an occupational hazard.
Thermo Wear is clothing made of a carbon aramid that has been pre-burned. The process consumes all of the material in the fiber that could be used as fuel for a fire. At TREXPO, Arctic Fire sprayed a Thermo Wear shirt with lighter fluid and ignited it. The lighter fluid burned off, but the shirt was not damaged.
Arctic Wear is marketing its Thermo Wear T-shirts to cops and soldiers for wear under body armor. The fabric is breathable and wicks moisture away from the skin. And it will not burn. The price had not been set at press time, but the company expects it to be only slightly more than popular polyester microfiber T-shirts.
www.arcticfire.com
Reader Service No. 311
Hy•Tape
Undercover Tape
Sometimes the smallest items at TREXPO can be really interesting. Such is the case with Hy•Tape’s latex-free adhesive tape. The zinc oxide-based tape was developed to make it a lot easier and a lot safer for undercover officers to wear a “wire.” It secures wireless audio and video body wire transmitters for hours, and it’s waterproof so it’s immune to perspiration.
www.hytape.com
Reader Service No. 312
The Gun Shop
Perma-Gel Ballistic Gelatin
Anyone who has ever tried to make FBI-recipe ballistic gelatin knows that the stuff can be a pain. It melts in the sun. It gets contaminated with bacteria. And it’s opaque, so sometimes it’s hard to see the wound channel. At TREXPO, The Gun Shop showed Perma-Gel, a special formula clear ballistic gelatin that does not need to be refrigerated, won’t melt except at high temperature, and has no food content so bacteria won’t be able to thrive in it. Perma-Gel can be bought precooked for about $90 a block or you can buy the mix and a cooker and make your own for a slight savings. The Gun Shop says it believes Perma-Gel will be popular with forensic ballistics experts and rangemasters who are testing ammo.
www.policeammo.com
Reader Service No. 313
Night Vision Systems
Envis Monocular
No quality night vision system is cheap, but Night Vision Systems showed a great little monocular at TREXPO East that isn’t a budget buster. The monocular, priced under $4,000, runs on two AA batteries and can be attached to both video and still cameras. It’s small (six inches long), lightweight (14.5 ounces), water resistant, and it offers GEN 3 image intensification.
www.nightvisionsystems.com
Reader Service No. 314
CCF/RaceFrames
Glock Replacement Frames
Sometimes an officer has no choice as to what gun to carry. Consequently, a lot of cops who don’t like polymer pistols get handed a Glock and told to live with it. If you’re one of those guys who’d rather have a metal-frame pistol than a Glock but department policy dictates that you carry a Glock, CCF/RaceFrames may have a solution for you.