It feels like entering the U.S.: After passing through the registration office, you suddenly enter a different world - American vehicles, street names in English, American stores, cinemas and theaters. And yet we are in Germany, about 13 kilometers from Kaiserslautern: Ramstein Air Base is considered the most important U.S. military base in Europe.

The Americans have been stationed in the Western Palatinate for more than 70 years. The site is about 1,400 hectares in size, and almost 10,000 people work here - making the air base also an important economic factor for the region. The air base has become the most important hub for US Air Force cargo and troop transports worldwide.

And, of course, it also has its own fire department, which must meet the highest safety and technical standards. In 2020, the decision was made to convert the existing main fire station - Fire Station 1 - build an additional vehicle hall and to thoroughly modernize the existing respiratory protection workshop.

Breathing protection workshop made to measure

The new respiratory protection workshop was divided into different rooms in order to be able to realize a black/white separation. After a room with a separate building entrance for the delivery of contaminated respiratory protection equipment and the associated masks, these are taken to the black area for cleaning and disinfection.

The equipment is then inspected in the white area, repaired as needed, administratively managed, and then stored. Adjacent to the white area is a separate filling room where the breathing air cylinders are refilled with breathing air for the next mission. After a two-year planning and construction phase, the time had come on July 19, 2022: The new respiratory protection workshop was inaugurated and officially handed over to its intended use.

Christoph Stumpf, Fire Chief of Fire Station 1, is extremely satisfied with the course of the project and the cooperation with MiniTec: "The planning and execution were implemented to my complete satisfaction right from the start. The construction meetings were very constructive. Suggestions as well as wishes were taken into account and implemented technically and on schedule down to the smallest detail. The cooperation with all parties involved was very pleasant."

Quality and functionality are right

Thorsten Müller, respiratory protection equipment manager, is very pleased with the high practicality of the new equipment: "The quality and functionality of the furniture is absolutely satisfactory. Especially with the different sized flexible roll tables, we are able to adapt the workshop to different needs even in a tighter space. The deep drawers offer surprisingly large storage space for the many spare parts - and thanks to sorting inserts and labeling on the outside, you can still keep track of everything."

According to Thorsten Müller, Ramstein is also well equipped for the future with MiniTec: "The good thing about the modular design is that changes can be reacted to quickly. If an opportunity for improvement arises during the ongoing work process, it can either be implemented by us ourselves, or MiniTec can realize it with directly available supplementary parts."