SUBCONTRACTOR OF YEAR - Margery Morehardt, president of Techni-Products of East Longmeadow, holds a plastic version of the new torso unit of NASA's extra-vehicular space suit. The precision machine company, which was named New England's subcontractor of the year by the Small Business Administration, was the first to construct a unit of the NASA space suit from a single block of metal and use computer aided design.

It looks like a helmet, or even a giant plumbing joint, but it's actually a vest for astronauts to wear while floating outside the space shuttle, or someday on the steps of the space station.

The all new Hard Torso Shell unit or HTS, has not yet gone into space, but it has already helped a local machining company, Techni-Products, win an award for subcontractor of the year from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Recommended by Hamilton Standard Space Systems for its exceptional expert consulting and machining, Techni-Products was given the 1994 New England award.

First of its kind

"I learned by leaps and bounds about how to machine complex parts," said Ellen Kites, the manufacturing engineer and computer aided design specialist who worked most closely with the HTS to shape its contours and to machine the final product. Tooling hardware and outerware for outer space is only a modest part of business for Techni-Products, but it is the part that inspires, said the company's vice president.

"It's a very gratifying area to be in. You feel you're doing something to move mankind forward," said Robert Morehardt Jr., Vice-President, Sales.

The 55-employee company is located on Industrial Drive. Owned by the Morehardt family since 1979, Techni-Products has weathered the recession and government cutbacks by pursuing and maintaining a diverse customer base, and by, adding a rapid prototyping sub-company.

"Only 20 to 30 percent of Techni-Products" work comes from, space related projects," Morehardt said, "large enough to affect the size of the company, but small enough so that the company would continue if public interest in space evaporates."

Chosen for expertise

"Since the '60s and the Apollo program, the hard space suit has been made by hand from fiberglass," Hamilton Standard subcontract administrator Richard Kaufman said. This was necessary then because computer modeling was inadequate to create the subtle contours that fit an astronaut's body.

Techni-Products is the first manufacturer to machine a piece of the suit from a single billet of metal. Engineers and machinists spent months drilling on a 1,300-pound chunk of aluminum until it was a 13-pound rigid vest for the astronaut.

"The machining to .07 inches thick was extremely difficult," Kaufman said. "We'd not seen anything like that done before."

NASA and Hamilton Standard had redesigned the arm holes for greater flexibility and reliability, Kaufman said. The aluminum vest will not replace the fiberglass vests currently, he said. It will be on standby for a time when a suit is needed that can withstand higher pressure, for example, if NASA wants to eliminate the depressurizing time astronauts spend when transferring between inside the shuttle and outside.

Hamilton Standard recommended Techni-Products for the award due to their ability to offer technical assistance to customers and even to competitors, Kaufman said. Techni-Products is an expert site in the use of a high-end computer aided design system called CATIA, a product owned jointly by IBM and French company Dassault. Based on their experience with the software, Techni-Products was chosen by IBM to give technical support to other manufacturers using CATIA, which stands for Computer Aided Three dimensional Inter-Active design.

"They help us to get smart, to develop our ability to use CATIA," Kaufman said. Other space parts made by Techni-Products include water pressurization valve systems or manifolds for the space station, and the on-board attachment in the shuttle for the space suit, something Morehardt calls a space suit coat hanger.

Techni-Products also machines parts or prototypes for aircraft, medical parts and glass manufacturers.