Tag team: flood boosts sales for I.D. bracelet company.

If there's a cutting edge to wristband identification systems, Precision Dynamics Corp. is on it. The 49-year-old San Fernando-based company makes radio frequency wristband systems for hospitals and jails, and other high-tech identification devices.

But since Hurricane Katrina hit, the company's simple, color-coded bands have come into the most demand.

The bands, used on wrists or ankles, are being used in the Gulf Coast to identify the dead and also to classify survivors of the storm.

Precision's distinctive snap ID wristbands were used to distinguish thousands of New Orleans evacuees from shelter staff and volunteers at the Houston Astrodome. Meanwhile, overtaxed hospitals and clinics, such as the 147-bed Chabert Medical Center in Houma, southwest of New Orleans, are calling to replenish supplies of patient wristbands.

And while it now appears the hurricane's death toll will fall short of the more than 10,000 first feared, agencies are inquiring about the company's mortuary products, which include heavy-duty cadaver bags and sturdy ankle bands better able to hold up in the toxic soup of the flood zone than a conventional toe tag.

"No one really knows what the long-term needs will be because this is an unprecedented event," said Nick Curtin, Precision's marketing and sales vice president and a 20-year company veteran.

The company, directly and through its distributors, is also supplying agencies such as the American Red Cross. Some items are being donated or sold at the company's standard 20 percent to 30 percent non-profit discount.

Neal Frame, director of procurement and logistics for Los Angeles-based Operation USA, says Precision is donating wristbands, ankle bands and cadaver bags that will be forwarded to non-profit community clinics that Operation USA is helping get back on their feet.

"What we really need now are pharmaceuticals and basic first aid and clinical supplies," said Frame, whose non-profit group so far has received $4 million in cash and $12 million of in-kind donations for Katrina operations.

Like at other Los Angeles companies, Precision Dynamics' 490 employees passed the jar and collected more than $2,500 for the American Red Cross as of last week. The company is contributing $5 for every box sold of certain products.

Precision Dynamics was considered a pioneer in the wristband identification field when it opened shop in 1956 in Burbank. The two-piece hospital ID bracelets of the time required a special tool to attach the clasp to a patient's wrist.

Precision's one-piece band, developed with physician input, embedded the clasp within the band and could be joined by hand. The company eventually branched into a separate line of colorful plastic snap and laminated bands used to designate VIPs at concerts and keep out gatecrashers at festivals.

In the 1980s, the company began to explore new ID technologies, introducing the first bar code band in 1984 and adding radio frequency identification systems in 2000. These products are used to increase security in corrections facilities or link a surgical patient to their records and laboratory tests in a hospital.

The automated wristband lines have spurred growth for the privately held company in recent years, officials say, with annual revenues growing to an estimated $60 million this fiscal year from $50 million in 2003.

If the infrastructure were in place, the technology also could provide disaster workers access to more information about a victim during a relief operation. This is not the case with Katrina, but Precision officials say they have been approached by agencies inquiring about the technology's potential value in a future disaster.

While some of its products are selling well, Precision officials say they expect to lose sales in some product lines because some customers in the disaster area that have been put out of business.

Curtin recalled that Precision's travel and convention business dried up for months following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. This time, company expects wristband orders for Mardi Gras will be off significantly, if the event even takes place next year. But the company could see a slight uptick in orders for hurricane-related fundraisers. "We have to be flexible because it's the nature of our business--when one half is down, the other part will pick up," he said.