Duplex

Duplex (later known as Simon-Duplex) was a chassis & fire apparatus builder located in Michigan and Ohio.
==History==
The Duplex Power Car Company was formed in Michigan in 1907, later renaming itself the Duplex Truck Company in 1915. Duplex specialized in the manufacturing of trucks, and some were used as fire truck chassis. In the late 1940s, the company introduced a conventional fire truck chassis and supplied it to various apparatus body builders, notably the General Fire Truck Corporation. In 1954, Oren Roanoke Corporation started using Duplex when the Corbitt chassis was no longer available. A new design was introduced in the mid-1950s, and it was used by apparatus builders Boardman, Howe (as its Defender model), Oren and others. In the 1970s, cab forward chassis were built using cabs from TCM. 
In 1955, Duplex was acquired by Warner & Swasey. Duplex was in turn purchased by the Nolan Company in 1977 and production moved to Ohio. In 1986, Duplex was purchased by the Simon Group of the UK and renamed Simon-Duplex Inc. This was around the same time that Simon also purchased LTI, creating Simon-LTI. Simon-Duplex LTI built complete pumper and aerial apparatus using the Olympian chassis.
The Simon Group sold LTI to Aerial Innovations Inc. in 1998 and closed the Duplex operation the same year after no buyer was found. 
A successor company that sprung from the remnants of the Duplex operation in Ohio continued on as Sabel Incorporated until 2003, when it was purchased by Kimble Custom Chassis, now a division of Crane Carrier Company.
== Custom Chassis ==
* R200
* D300
* D-350 Enforcer
* D400
* D-450 Defender
* D500 Vanguard
* D500R Vanguard
* D9100 Signature
* D9300 Signature
==Sources==
*McCall, Walter M.P. Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Fire Engine Manufacturers. Hudson, WI: Iconografix, 2009. ISBN 9781583882528
*The Daily Reporter (Dover, Ohio) 11 October 1977.
Category:Defunct American fire apparatus manufacturers
Category:Defunct Apparatus Component Manufacturers
Category:Duplex