Although Paul Valentine, vice president of development with M&M Systems, Inc., had received assistance from the Florida Manufacturing Extension Partnership (FMEP) on manufacturing issues in the past, he was unsure of where to turn for help with a highly technical challenge that M&M Systems was facing. Then FMEP told Valentine about the Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program (SATOP). “We’ve always been very happy with the help that FMEP has given us, so I was excited to find out that there was a resource for us to access when it came to technical questions,” said Valentine.

M&M Systems, a manufacturer of industrial control systems in Ormond Beach, Fla., had begun developing a commercial product to help consumers with energy conservation by measuring home electrical usage and displaying that information to the homeowner in real time. That’s when M&M ran smack into a difficult technical challenge.
“In order to display that information to the consumer in real time, we needed a sensor that would indicate power consumption in real time,” Valentine said. “And finding the right sensor proved to be more difficult than we had first anticipated. We decided to approach SATOP for help.”
SATOP, which provides free engineering assistance to small business with technical challenges through the donations of time and expertise from 25 Space Alliance Partners, enlisted the help of Applied Technology Associates (ATA), an Alliance Partner in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Valentine calls ATA, a manufacturer of sensors, a “perfect match” for M&M Systems’ technical problem. Ken Bishop, manager of optical measurement and imaging systems with Alliance Partner Applied Technology Associates in Albuquerque, New Mexico, worked on M&M’s request for assistance. Within a short time, Bishop and ATA presented M&M Systems with a white paper detailing several options to solve the sensor issue.
Valentine says that he is “tremendously pleased” with the information and recommendations compiled by ATA, as well as the opportunity to brainstorm with experts in the sensor industry. Once M&M Systems implements the recommendations, they will potentially be able to produce a new product line for consumers. This new product will encourage homeowners to conserve energy by displaying how much energy they are consuming in real time.
“SATOP provided us with easy access to experts in a technical field that we simply would not have had otherwise,” Valentine said. “Now that I know SATOP is available, we definitely will use them for technical challenges that we’ll face in the future.”