About K-O Concepts, Inc.

K-O Concepts, Inc.

     At K-O Concepts, Inc. we have been designing and manufacturing precision recirculating coolant chillers for 27 years. This experience has resulted in products that provide out-of-the-box thinking for your cooling requirements.  Innovation comes standard with our 19” rack mount configuration to save floor space and aid in integration into your system.


History of K-O Concepts, Inc.

     K-O Concepts was established in 1995 by Randy Owen and Lenita Traver-Owen as a spin-off company from Advanced Laser Systems Technology (ALST). ALST, a division of L3, presently builds military-grade laser rangefinder equipment.  Randy was one of four founding members of ALST. With education and experience in laser production and electro-optics, Randy worked to integrate, design, and develop laser products that were used in defense, aerospace, medical, and commercial industries. In accruing 19 years of experience in the laser industry, his work also involved the development of precision cooling apparatus for sensitive laser equipment. Randy worked in engineering, program management, and was the Director of Operations for ALST. Lenita Traver was the office manager, buyer, and accountant for ALST. Lenita was the President and office manager of K-O Concepts until 2015, when she retired.

The K-O Concepts Team

     Randy oversees all the sales and engineering tasks of the company.  Richard Hoffman is our Senior Mechanical Engineer and QA manager. Richard is a degreed and certified Mechanical Engineer with over 30 years of experience (22 years with K-O Concepts) and a proficient designer using CAD software. Richard's designs have been instrumental in the efficient use of space in the design of our cooling products. Bobby Hayes, a certified HVAC technician, is the production manager and has been on the K-O Concepts team for over 19 years.  Bobby’s experience and skill is integral in every product we build.  Nathan Owen has worked as a technician for K-O Concepts for 19 years.  In 2022 Sandra Alzate joined our team as our Stockroom and Office Manager.  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

NEW CEO

    Mindy Ritz-Owen has a degree in Engineering Physics and five years of experience working at NASA-Kennedy Space Center.  Her knowledge and experience are key in developing new communications interfaces and integrating new functions into our systems. Mindy's experience in diagnosing and solving problems due to EMI in aerospace applications will aid during future development and testing to DO-160 (aviation standards).  

     Mindy started working at K-O Concepts as a consultant, on a very limited basis, in 2017. In 2019 she became a direct employee of the company. Mindy has taken on many responsibilities that have resulted in substantial financial and organizational improvements for the company.  In January 2020 she started working in a managerial capacity with the company.  Director, CFO, HR, training office staff, IT admin, development engineer, and proposal writer are just a few of the many hats Mindy wears at K-O Concepts.  On December 31st, 2020 Mindy took on yet another role when she became the majority shareholder of the company.    In 2021 her partner, Randy, asked her to take on the position of CEO. 

    Our new CEO is excited to be able to serve our company in such a capacity during this phase of growth.  She hopes to refocus K-O Concepts more towards the Aerospace industry, which is so near and dear to her heart. We have a great many customers in major aerospace and defense companies; that is the core of where our company focus is heading for growth. That being said, we still treasure and hope to continue serving our many longtime customers in other industries.    

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Product History

     Early K-O products included rack-mounted laser power supplies with associated water-cooling systems.  K-O Concepts also developed a ruby laser system for tattoo removal and a precision, refrigerated, rackmount water chiller for cooling it. K-O soon dedicated all efforts to aqueous based heat exchanger and refrigerated cooling systems.  Our K-O Concepts cooling products are now widely used in defense, aerospace, medical, scientific, OEM, and commercial industry applications.  

     Our experience with poly-alpha-olefin (PAO) coolant goes back to 2005. Our earliest customers were (and still are), Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, and BAE, to name a few. We are presently designating a line of our chillers as an “Aerospace” product line with field-ruggedized, rack-mounted chillers for both aqueous and PAO cooling. A division of Lockheed-Martin shared in the development of our K-O Model DMC-DC chiller that uses 28 VDC aircraft power. The original 28 VDC chillers were shipped in 2015.  Many of the NOAA Hurricane Hunters in North America are using our Model LCR-8 chillers for cooling their radar systems.