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May 19, 1987

News 985-2131

GUR COMMUNITY

Classified 986-6222

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New spreader could revolutionize}
i highway industry, NV firm says |

A NORTH Vancouver manufacturing company unveiled a
road shoulder machine Friday that could revolutionize the
North American highway construction and maintenance

industry.

Kitt. Industries Inc, owner Ed
Kitt, 49, said Friday the market for
his company’s Kitt Spreader is
close to $52.5 million in Canada
alone.

“The market in the U.S.,"" he
said, ‘tis probably 10 to 15 times
that.’*

Kitt, the spreader’s inventor and
designer, came up with the idea for
the machine 10 years ago and has
worked ‘‘step-by-step’’ toward its
manufacture ever since.

The company set up its assembly
plant in North Vancouver at 1586
Railway St. last September. A
subsequent $75,000 loan from the
B.C. Development Corp. (BCDC)
paved the way for Kitt to begin full
machine production,

Consulting engineer Frank
Cameron, who helped in’ the
machine's design, said the hit
Spreader was ‘technology
developed in the backyard. And it
is the first of its kind in the world.
It’s a totally new concept in the
highway industry, and gives us a
chance to export technology to the
United States for a change.”’

Kitt, a North Shore resident who
has worked ali his life in the high-
way construction and paving in-
dustry, said the spreader will
replace four separate pieces of
highway machinery and a mini-
musi of five workers.

Untike conventional highway
shoulder building machinery that is
joaded with grave! via dump (rucks
and is worth approximatcly
$180,000 per unit, the $75,000 Kitt
Spreader carries its own gravel,
spreads and grades it and sweeps
the highway.

In the process, the machine,

By TIMOTHY RENSHAW

News Reporter

which can be pulled by any con-
ventional tractor tuck, replaces
the dump trucks needed to load the
conventional shoulder machine,
and grader and broom machines.
ft afso meters gravel, which heips
reduce gravel waste and, according
to Kitt, cuts gravel costs by up to 20
per cent.

The machine has an 18-cubic-
yard payload.

In addition, Kitt said the
spreader, eight feet wide and 35
feet long, is half the width of con-
ventional shoulder maintenance
machinery and consequently will
not interrupt traffic when it is in
use.

“Basically what you get is more
road done for less money," Kitt
said.

The North Vancouver company
has already sold one Kiut Spreader
and, according to Kit, has orders
for three more.

Kitt said the North Vancouver
assembly plant, which employs six
people, will have an initial produc-
tion capacity of four machines per
month, but he expects that pro-
duction to double very soon.

Kitt's son Boh was the official
test pilot for his father’s invention,
The 26-year-old will also be in
charge of training dealers and
drivers in the machine’s use.

Kia said he plans to set up a
network of dealerships across
Canada and the United States. He
said market studies have estimated
the Canadian industry would ab-
sorb between 600 to 700 of the
machines.

Suite po

PTH AND WEST VANCOUYER

Distribution 986-1337 52 pages 25¢

There is none,
In all this cold and hallow world, no fount

Of deep strong, deathless love, save that within

A mother’s heart. FELICIA D. HEMANS — Siege of Valencia

Don’t forget, today is Mother’s Day!

NEWS photo Teiry Peters

Getting burned

A FIREFIGHTER from North Vancouver City Fire Department practises his firefighting skills during a
training session earlier this week. For the first time in many years, NVCFD burned down a house, which
was slated for demolition, at 18th and Chesterfield.