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Hi all, first post I wanted to have something interesting. Last weekend while looking for some info on Natick website I came across a pdf from October discussing a new air activated flameless ration heater US is planning to introduce. I did some research on it and wrote a post on it http://www.bulk-survival-food.com/new-m ... aters-aah/ it sounds like it is planned for 2016 introduction. Besides not needing water, other big benefit is no hydrogen off-gassing so it is safer and easier to transport. One caveat to new design is since the heat transfer is entirely conductive (ie no latent heat from steam condensation) maximizing surface area contact with pouches is more important.

How puncture-proof are they?

chitoryu12 wrote:How puncture-proof are they?

pdf Document, which may be preliminary specifies

Curlam®Grade 1834-K protective packaging film has
been identified as a film suitable for making heater
pouches and peelable seals (Figure 6). This material is
coextruded film with a polyester layer, an adhesive
layerand an EVOH EZ Peel
®EVA layer.

This is food grade film probably not much different than current pouch if you have a spec on that.

Welcome to the forums! Thanks for the really interesting read. I wonder if just including an extra oxygen absorber in the main MRE bag could help prevent any chance of them getting prematurely activated. It seems like they've thought that part though though so I guess it's just wait and see to find them (or not) in a year or two in new MREs.

Ruleryak wrote:Welcome to the forums! Thanks for the really interesting read. I wonder if just including an extra oxygen absorber in the main MRE bag could help prevent any chance of them getting prematurely activated. It seems like they've thought that part though though so I guess it's just wait and see to find them (or not) in a year or two in new MREs.

interesting question, main concern would be with shelf life. I looked up info for hand warmers and found this article in Chemical & Engineering news http://cen.acs.org/articles/88/i4/Hand-Warmers.html

I think the hand warmers use different chemistry and the amount of stored energy in one is less than the MRE heater would have, but it is a reference point.

Another concern would be de-lamination of the adhesive film keeping oxygen out, via thermal expansion and contraction in storage conditions. Maybe not a big deal, and it's easy to test.

Good post. I've heard they were coming, and it'll be interesting to see how they pan out with reliability and performance. I can definitely see some advantages if it works as advertised.

Really good PDF that goes over specs, testing etc.
http://nsrdec.natick.army.mil/library/00-09/r08-106.pdf

hmm you know I was wondering when they were going to come out with something like this. 2016 is when we should see them in the field eh?

Hopefully, the don't have any issues with spontaneously combustion or having short shelf lives.