KEARNEYSVILLE, W.Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Schonstedt Instrument Company and the United Nations Mine Action Team have identified the first recipient of free demining equipment under the Schonstedt Humanitarian Demining Initiative. The International Mine Action Training Center in Nairobi, Kenya will take delivery of an initial shipment of twenty magnetic locators for training and use in landmine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) detection. The open-ended Schonstedt program will place hundreds of the sophisticated tools in the hands of humanitarian mine clearance personnel worldwide. The initiative provides that each purchase of a Schonstedt underground pipe and cable locator – a TraceMaster or XTpc – will trigger a donation in the customer’s name of a Schonstedt magnetic locator for explosive ordnance detection. The UN Mine Action Service will coordinate the distribution of the locators to where they are most needed, thereby extending its humanitarian demining reach throughout the world. Schonstedt has shipped thousands of magnetic locators – known technically as gradiometers or magnetometers – to the military and its contractors, as well as non-governmental organizations, for use in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Lebanon, South Korea, Russia and Vietnam. “We’re proud of our reputation for quality instruments, and very proud that our locators are the top choice of overseas military deminers,” says Schonstedt President Mike Head. “This initiative is aimed at humanitarian workers engaged in the restoration of land impacted by land mines, unexploded ordnance and other explosive remnants of war. As a company, we want to do our part to heal the wounds of war; we think our customers will feel the same way.” Examples of UXO are landmines, grenades, mortars, shells, and cluster bombs, collectively known as explosive remnants of war. Manual detection of these ferrous metal objects is dependent on an instrument’s ability to sense subsurface anomalies within the earth’s magnetic field, and Schonstedt’s reputation for sensitive instrumentation is well established. They have been making laboratory quality magnetometers since 1953, and were the first company to offer a handheld magnetic locator. “With the help of Schonstedt and its customers, we’ll be able to work with any number of populations for which UXO clearance would not otherwise be possible,” says Max Gaylard, Director of the UN Mine Action Service. The initiative will continue indefinitely, since most experts predict a decades-long need for humanitarian demining. About Schonstedt Instrument Company Schonstedt Instrument Company designs, manufactures and markets instruments and accessories used to locate underground objects. Its magnetic locators are used to find ferrous metal objects such as UXO, weapons, drums and storage tanks, boundary markers, etc. The company also manufactures a line of instruments to find and trace any linear, electrically conductive material such as telephone, cable TV and fiber optic lines, water and gas pipes, and AC power lines. http://www.mineaction.org
