Andrews, Tex.—With help from the NASA-funded Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program (SATOP), Preston Tanner, a small business owner, has created the Tack Strip Nailer in order to help make carpet installations faster and safer. Tanner, a 19-year veteran of the carpet cleaning and repair business and owner of Carpet Savers in Texas, began formulating his idea in 2003 with his wife, Ava, because he’d had enough of the difficulties involved in installing and repairing tack strips, he noted. “Using gloves is cumbersome and slows you down, but if you don’t wear them, your hands get torn up,” Tanner explained. “There was one tool on the market that was supposed to help but it wasn’t very user friendly, so I started working on my idea in between repair jobs.” Tanner formulated a prototype which he worked with for a year before starting the patent process. While using the tool, he realized that when it was upside down the strike pin would fall out of the guide tube which prevented it from working perfectly. Not knowing how to resolve the issue he and his wife sought the help of the Small Business Development Center which directed them to SATOP. “We set up a meeting with the Small Business Development Center in Odessa and asked if they knew of any programs that could help us,” he said. “They told us about SATOP. We were excited to find out we could have access to that level of technical expertise for our small project.” Call For Help Through SATOP, Kirk Shepard, an engineering services manager for SPACEHAB and former employee of The Boeing Co., answered the Tanner’s desperate call for help. “Though I’m not an expert in carpet installation,” Shepard noted, “I had worked in the construction industry for several years and was involved in the restoration of older homes where we installed carpet tack strips, so I understood the tool’s task, the advantage it would provide and who would use it. “The solution to the strike pin issue was to keep the pin captive in the guide tube, be rugged enough to withstand the force of being struck by a hammer, and cost effective as not to greatly increase the complexity of this amazing, yet simple tool,” he added. Shepard came up with a solution to the strike pin issue and provided Tanner with drawings and specifications for its design. After making the necessary changes, performing field testing and receiving interest from the carpet industry, the Tanners began the process of arranging for the tool’s production. —Kathlene Vercellino