- [Narrator] The Air Force Technology Transfer Program
helps move important new technologies
from Air Force research centers into the private sector
where they can benefit the U.S. Military
and American economy.
This is the story of one of them.
The mission of the Training Device Design
and Engineering Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base
is to build training and educational devices
such as exact scale models of satellites
for the space and missile community.
- We're a full fabrication shop,
with full design and engineering capabilities.
It's a small five man shop that can do almost anything.
- [Narrator] In the early 2000s are part of
an Air Force operational risk assessment,
Dell Barritt examined the risks involved
in using oxyacetylene carts for welding.
- The key issues was that the high pressure gas
only being held into the cart by a single chain,
and if it fell out of the cart,
then you've got a high-speed gas
escaping from the bottle
and you have a missile going through your shop.
- [Narrator] So Barritt and his team of engineers
set about redesigning and building
a user safe and practical oxyacetylene cart.
- We have mechanically fastened the tanks into the cart.
So you could literally tip this upside down
and the bottles cannot fall out.
We removed the regulators and put them up front.
We added a firewall in between,
because you have a flammable gas
and a high pressure oxygen tank.
There's 2,000 psi in there.
- [Narrator] In addition, they added a retractable hose,
a place to keep tools, store bottle caps,
and added a fire extinguisher.
The whole thing is on four wheels with locking casters.
They're design won a Best Practice aware.
Then Barritt set about getting it patented.
- They sent me to a patent attorney
at Kirkland Air Force Base in New Mexico.
And then he provide the AFI, or the written guidance,
on how this is done, and that started the ball rolling.
- [Narrator] With a patent in place
and with help from TechLink, a DoD partnership intermediary,
a small company in rural Montana,
Spika Design and Manufacturing,
licensed the cart for manufacture and sale
in the commercial marketplace, naming it the Gas Guardian.
- It fit our product line.
Our primary wheelhouse is elevated work platforms,
but we also offer a number of ancillary products
for aviation maintenance
and this is one of those things
that kinda fits in with that.
- [Narrator] It also fits well with the employee skill set
needed to undertake the custom manufacturing required.
- Basically we're set up for custom product in our shop.
A lot of our people are rural America,
growin' up on farms.
A lot of the experiences that you learn on the farm
are in manufacturing.
- We're up to about 60 employees now,
which is getting to be a bit of an economic driver
in a community of 6,500 people.
We're paying a wage that you can support a family.
You can be buying a home.
- [Narrator] 75% of Spika sales have been to the military,
but the company has sold Gas Guardian carts
to aerospace companies
and into the broader commercial market as well.
- We've got a bakery, a big company,
it's probably one of the biggest bakeries
in the United States
that's bought a number of 'em.
- Let's see if she fires.
- [Narrator] Through the use of technology transfer,
the Gas Guardian created the TDDEC team
at Vandenberg Air Force Base,
has set new standard for safety in oxyacetylene welding.
That success is inspiring further efforts
to develop and transfer useful technologies.
- By the nature of our work,
we're innovating and designing everyday.
So there's lots of stuff we come up with
that could be shared and be useful to other people.
- [Narrator] Air Force technology transfer,
improving safety for military personnel
and in the civilian workplace.
(upbeat music)
For more information,
contact the Air Force Technology Transfer program.
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