The ongoing war in Iraq is keeping the folks at Kinedyne Corp. in Lawrence plenty busy.

The company this month added a $8.73 million contract to provide cargo tie-down nets for the Air Force. The order — for 23,955 top nets and 32,510 side nets — is to be filled by the end of this year, according to the Department of Defense.

The contract will bump up the company’s production to about 7,000 nets a month, up from the 5,000 a month produced under an existing $14 million, two-year contract set to expire in May.

The combination of nylon straps, industrial-strength stitching and heavy-duty hardware are Kinedyne’s constant contribution to the war effort.

“It’s a good feeling to know that you’re helping support the troops over there,” said Dave McClain, the company’s materials manager. “These nets help make sure that the things that they need are getting there safely.”

The company’s products have been in Iraq since war operations began. Employees showing up for work at Kinedyne’s net facility walk past a photo taken early on in the war, when U.S. troops seized $23 million of stolen U.S. bank notes in Iraq.

“Those are our nets on that pallet, holding all those bank notes down,” McClain said. “There isn’t a week that doesn’t go by where we don’t see pictures or don’t hear news of them being used to move supplies around overseas.”

Such movements of food, ammunition and other supplies have the nets in high demand throughout the Middle East theater, said Rob Connallon, an Air Force spokesman at the Pentagon.

“This buy is indeed driven by the ops (operational) tempo in the AOR (Area of Responsibility),” Connallon said. “We’re moving stuff over to the Middle East, and the more stuff we move, the more nets we need to keep the stuff that’s on the pallets in place.”

Kriya Treemaneekarn sews a cargo net at Kinedyne Corp. in Lawrence's Franklin Business Park. The company secured a contract to make nets through the end of this year, adding to a previous deal that began in 2003.

Kinedyne was one of two suppliers to compete for the contract. Bids were submitted in December, and negotiations with Kinedyne wrapped up late last month.

The nets are being dispatched to the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, plus other bases, for distribution to the dozens of bases where nets are needed, Connallon said. He expects Kinedyne to be in the mix for even more orders, as needs dictate.

“This is being driven by what we’re doing abroad, and it’s likely we’ll be buying more of these in the future,” he said.

Kinedyne assembles the nets in a 16,000-square-foot building in Franklin Business Park. Kinedyne leased the space in 2003 for the two-year Air Force contract.

The operation has about 62 employees. McClain expects to add another four employees within the next month, with possibility of more in the months ahead.

The net-making division is a growing segment of Kinedyne, whose main Lawrence operations are in a larger building across Kansas Highway 10 in East Hills Business Park. That’s where the company makes other cargo-control systems, such as for use on flatbed trailers.

This year the Lawrence operation expects revenues from overall production of $27 million to $28 million, up from $25 million in 2004, McClain said.

Gunnar Garbo, left, and Wes Sharpton inspect cargo nets set for delivery to military bases. The nets are used to secure supplies on wooden pallets.

Kinedyne also helped another Lawrence company get into the cargo tie-down business. Cottonwood Inc., a provider of employment, residential and support services for people with developmental disabilities, signed on in 1992 to make straps as a Kinedyne subcontractor.

Cottonwood currently is in the first year of a renewed five-year contract to sew, label, package and ship cargo straps directly to hundreds of U.S. military bases around the world. During the first five-year contract, which expired in May, the company sold 1.8 million straps to the military for about $20 million.

Kinedyne now serves as a subcontractor to Cottonwood, providing hardware and materials to make the straps capable of holding supplies and equipment in place on ships, trucks or anywhere else.

Cottonwood officials say Kinedyne’s latest net contract could help sew up even more work for Cottonwood, which already has garnered numerous production awards from the Department of Defense for its work on cargo straps.

Alma QuinDanilla inspects the seams on a cargo net manufactured at Kinedyne. The firm's net facility has 62 employees, and a new contract could add more in the month's ahead.

Cottonwood has about three dozen employees working on the straps.

“We’ve been very successful at it,” said J.R. Condra, Cottonwood’s director of work services.

All the work at Kinedyne and Cottonwood puts Lawrence on the map in military cargo circles.

“You just might be the cargo tie-down capital of the world,” said Connallon, the Air Force spokesman.