Von Walters and Mark Ensor were both established automation equipment builders in 1994 and happened to be together watching televised storm coverage on TV. From those obligatory shots of people filling sandbags with shovels, Mark Ensor began quietly developing concepts for an automatic sandbagging machine built around "standard" sandbags. But it wasn't until 1997 that Mark Ensor realized that the sandbagging world would except a new bag if it could be filled automatically by a machine. So he designed a bag, developed a concept for a machine, recruited Bob Forde to write a business plan, and Ensor Equipment was founded in 1998. The company applied and was issued patents for the bag and the filling machine design .Patents for other components of the filling machine, and the machines that make the bags are pending.

   The Company built a proof of concept machine in 2001 and began rigorous testing. In 2003 the company built its pre-production, Machine Serial #2 and began thorough testing, except this time selling the filled sandbags instead of cutting them open and dumping the sand back into the hopper. The Company soon realized that there was a ready market for an onsite filling service. In 2002, Ensor Equipment formed Sandbag Services LLC to service this growing market and is projecting to fill over 7 million sandbags in 2005.

     Mark E. Ensor, P.E.

     Von Walters