By: Doug Hall, Kestrel Account Manager

AIHce 2013 is now history, but it didn’t end without Kestrel on the minds of many in the industrial hygiene industry.  This year marks the second time NK has been represented at an AIHce event, this time more than any other shows that persistence pays off.  In past events, many were asking either who we were or why we decided to join the ranks of the industrial hygiene industry.  However this year, many participants not only knew who and what Kestrel is all about, but also had rave reviews of our products and how they loved the functionality compared to others in the industry.

Although there were a wide variety of Kestrel products on display, the 4400 & 4600 Heat Stress Tracker line was front & center.  Anybody that came to our booth liked the fact our heat stress tracker was rugged, portable, easy to use & took waterless WBGT readings.  Many were impressed by the accuracy and precision our units deliver and many people visited us several times, usually bringing others with them who didn’t yet know what Kestrel had to offer.  There were even visits to our booth from some of Kestrel’s competitors asking about some of our latest products.

Over 5000 vendors and customers came to this year’s AIHce conference in Montreal, Canada.  Many different products were on display having to do with industrial hygiene and safety.  However, with only a handful of years in this industry, Kestrel is starting to become more of a household brand amongst IH professionals all over the world. If this year’s show was any indicator, Kestrel is continuing to grow as a trusted and accurate source of information and reliability in this industry and will continue to do so from here on out.

Earlier this spring, NK’s CEO proposed an idea – to see who’d be interested in growing our very own garden along the side of our building. Everyone seemed enthused at the idea of bringing in seeds to plant different vegetables and plants, but when they heard it was going to be a garden grown on bales of straw, there was a lot of extra excitement in the office.

Straw-bale gardening is becoming increasingly popular and perhaps easier these days. It works well for those who dislike working on the ground on their hands and knees, or for those who simply have poor soil and no luck with things blooming. For us, it was none of the above, we just thought it’d be fun and interesting to start a community garden here at NK.

About 4 weeks  ago, several NK employees went alongside our building and planted everything from hot peppers, to tomatoes, to beans in several bales of straw. So far it has been quite the experiment and it seems to be going pretty well! We’re hoping in a few weeks we may be able to benefit from some of these yummy veggies and have something healthy to snack on!

Yesterday, Nielsen-Kellerman hosted its very first blood drive and it was a huge success! We teamed up with Red Cross to make the event happen. The Red Cross team was great, they arrived promptly, set up and even provided snacks and refreshments for NK donors.

When the charity committee initially met with the Red Cross representative, Jill, about hosting the event, she mentioned that it’s pretty standard to expect 10% of the company to donate and anything more than that would be fantastic. NK has about 80 employees and knowing our employees, we knew we could recruit more than 8 people to volunteer and donate. We initially set our sights on 40 donors and the Red Cross was extremely happy with our ambitious spirit.

Katie Godfrey, Director of Sales, headed up the initiative to recruit donors and the entire NK team was thrilled when she surpassed the initial goal and signed up 52 donors! That is 65% participation, well over the Red Cross’ norm, but then again NK is not your normal company!

The day was filled with other fun things to ease the minds of a few people who may have felt a little anxious about donating the first time. NK’s Graphic Designer, Jasmine Malik, designed a superhero themed t-shirt with a superman-esque emblem on the front with the letters “NK” and “I Saved a Life at NK’s First Annual Blood Drive” on the back. Everyone who signed up to donate received a shirt.

Each employee who volunteered to give blood also received a water bottle with a reminder to “Hydrate before you donate” with a red balloon tied to it that reminded them of their time. It was neat to look around the office and see all the red balloons floating above the cubicles and work stations. Those who weren’t able to donate helped in other ways by baking delicious snacks to help the donors recover quickly!

NK was very pumped (no pun intended) to host such a successful blood drive their first time. One thing is for sure, this definitely won’t be the last blood drive at NK.

The NK team is very excited for the recent news that Kestrel was awarded a General Services Administration (GSA) contract to supply weather and environmental meters to government buyers. Federal government buyers and other eligible agencies are now able to receive contract pricing for Kestrel Weather & Environmental Meters, including Kestrel’s Ballistics Weather Meter line, under contract number GS-07F-231AA.

“As a GSA contract holder, we are now able to quickly and efficiently provide our government customers with the Kestrel products they need in the field,” said Alix James, NK CEO. “We’re proud to be a contract holder and a trusted brand manufacturer of the U.S. military for more than 15 years.”

NK is listed in the GSA system as contractor: Nielsen-Kellerman Co. under “Total Solutions for Law Enforcement, Security, Facilities Management, Fire, Rescue, Clothing, Marine Craft and Emergency/Disaster Response.” The current contract award period runs until April 21, 2018. For more information or pricing, contact Tommy Loomis, Kestrel Account Manager, directly at 610-447-1555, extension 117, or at tloomis(at)nkhome(dot)com.

Nielsen-Kellerman would like to thank all of the emergency medical service professionals for their service and wish them a happy National EMS Week! So many of these individuals are cross-trained and take on the role of firefighters, EMTs, HazMat professionals and more.  Kestrel Weather & Environmental Meters are used by many of these professionals on a daily basis to help provide them with instant weather data to make quick decisions when so much can be going around them.

Thank you for all that you do!

The Kestrel Meter is no stranger to the big screen, in fact, at 17 years old it has already starred in 2 big movies with one on the way.

The Kestrel first made an appearance in the action film, “Shooter”, starring Mark Walberg. In the movie, Walberg plays a top Marine sniper who previously abandoned the military. With an all-star cast, the 2007 movie received great reviews. It was exciting for the Kestrel team at NK to see the Kestrel 3000 in action. The Kestrel 3000 is a hand-held, waterproof weather meter that measures wind speed, temperature, relative humidity, heat stress index and dew point. Kestrel Weather Meters are often used off-screen by many competitive shooters and snipers in the military because of its extreme accuracy and ruggedness.  In fact, next month, Kestrel is releasing a brand new Shooter’s Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics software. If there is ever a sequel to this movie, maybe the newest addition to the Kestrel Ballistics Weather Meter Line will have a chance at fame. For more information about the Kestrel Shooter’s Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics, visit the product page.

In 2008, the movie, “A Journey to the Center of the Earth” was released. The movie featured a Kestrel 2500 which measures temperature, wind speed, barometric pressure and altitude. For those familiar with the movie, the Kestrel 2500 made its debut when Trevor Anderson asks Hannah Ásgeirsson the temperature.

With an anticipated release date of January 2014, the Kestrel is expected to make another appearance in the highly anticipated action movie, Ten, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. In this movie, Schwarzenegger’s character will be training someone on how to  shoot and will be using the Kestrel Shooter’s Weather Meter with Horus Ballistics as a tool. We are looking forward to next winter to see if Kestrel Shooter’s Weather Meter made the director’s final cut!

The weather is breaking, the winds are finally subsiding and the hot air ballooning season has come into full swing. To many of us on the ground, ballooning may appear as simple as heating the air in the balloon, taking off and then landing somewhere safe – hopefully. However, ballooning enthusiasts must take into account many different factors before lighting the flame and taking off into the wild blue yonder. And many of those factors can be easily determined if they have a Kestrel 2500 Pocket Weather Meter at the ready.

Wind speed is one of the most important things to consider in ballooning, and the Kestrel 2500 provides pilots with accurate readings of how fast the wind is blowing at ground level, which could cancel a flight entirely. Temperature can also affect how long it takes for the balloon to fully expand or how much flame it takes to get the air hot, which also determines how much fuel is used. With the Kestrel 2500 in hand, pilots can get an accurate temperature reading and manage their fuel consumption. Altitude is also very important considering hot air balloons can climb to about 12,000 ft before passengers need oxygen. Thanks to the Kestrel 2500, pilots can get an accurate altitude measurement based on the barometric pressure reading of the unit.

The Kestrel 2500 has many uses and can help determine environmental conditions in a number of different ways, but for the hot air balloon enthusiast, it’s an essential tool. The next time you go to a hot air balloon race or take a hot air balloon ride, look around and you’ll probably see several pilots using their Kestrel meters to obtain their pre-flight readings. And if not, you could always show them how easy it is to use your Kestrel meter!