A Free Service to All US Small Businesses

You don't have to be building a new type of booster rocket or developing a method for dehydrating blood for lunar transfusions to tap into the resources of SATOP - a nationwide NASA engineering and education partnership that provides FREE assistance to small businesses in the US . In fact, it's all of those small and large everyday technical hurdles – the “I-don't-know-where-to-turn-for-help-with-this-problem” issues that often stall a business or an entrepreneur's dream project.

NASA's SATOP program is designed to help meet those everyday challenges. Through SATOP – the Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program – NASA is able to spread the word about the value of the space program as well as speed the transfer of the engineering expertise it has gained over the years. As a member benefit, the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce, along with economic development organizations and chambers throughout the US, support their local communities by getting the word out about SATOP. US small businesses (with less than 500 employees) and entrepreneurs are encouraged to submit a one-page Request for Technical Assistance (RTA) to initiate the process.

Once the request is submitted, SATOP engineers (located in 4 centers, one of which is right here in Syracuse!) review the request; contact the requestor and get additional information as needed; and contact the NASA affiliates (contractors, sub-contractors, colleges and universities) that have volunteered their professional resources to the program. From there on, the requestor and the engineer or technical expert work hand-in-hand toward a useful solution.

The ever-growing list of diverse challenges from over 1800+ businesses assisted by our SATOP partners since 1995 is impressive:

• A Texas business needing to create a more efficient manufacturing process is assisted by a New York professor
• A Florida business owner looking for a specialty product that works in an inking process is assisted by Boeing engineers
• A Yonkers entrepreneur's product receives necessary review by a Connecticut NASA contractor
• A New York City company gets a boost for its motor production from a New Mexico university
• A Jamaica, NY business receives a product performance validation from Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, FL
• A New Mexico biomedical engineer assists in modifying and simplifying a medical product's design presented by a Fort Lauderdale inventor
• An Ashville, NC firm is paired up with Johnson Space Center engineers for a problem with recycling fuel tanks

 There is no catch! Discover for yourself the FREE assistance that is yours for the asking! Please contact Bonnie Link, SATOP program manager for the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce at 828-4417 for more information. To access the one page request form, visit www.SATOPNY.com .

SATOP SUCCESS STORY-

Damage Rates Drop at Comfortex Thanks to SATOP

Comfortex Window Fashions, a Maplewood, NY based manufacturer of window treatments recently started designing faux wood shutters. In the last two years however, eight percent of the shutters were returned because of damage during shipping.

Fortunately, Comfortex President Thomas Marusak attended a seminar in Albany and learned about the Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program (SATOP). SATOP is a NASA funded program which pairs companies which have technological challenges with alliance partners that offer 40 hours of FREE consulting.

Peter Connery, Comfortex VP of Fabrication Operations, filled out a request for technical assistance which SATOP accepted and assigned to alliance partner MRI Technologies in Houston, TX . MRI Executive VP Tim Kropp and his engineer Keith Irish simulated the shipping conditions of the shutters and found that the packaging could not withstand much stress. They suggested Comfortex look at protecting the panel face and not just the edges. When Comfortex implemented the suggested changes, returns due to damage in shipping dropped to less than one percent.

 “We couldn't have asked for a better outcome,” said Connery. “SATOP quickly found the right person with the right expertise. The engineer took the problem over and came back with a quick affordable and successful recommendation.”

MRI's engineers were equally pleased with the experience. “It's satisfying when you see first-hand that as engineers we can contribute to business processes by applying good engineering,” said Kropp.

It's easy to obtain assistance from SATOP. Visit www.SpaceTechSolutions.com to fill out an RTA or call 828-4417 for more information.