Company moves into outer space

MONTROSE  — With a fairly strong manufacturing base, products are shipped from Montrose all around the world, but one company's hard work is reaching even further — outer space.

For the past two and a half years, employees at Montrose-based Synergy Vacuum have worked along side NASA to modify a vacuum pump for a NASA space mission.

The mission, AMS-02, is expected to launch in September, Synergy president Steve Lehm said. The mission will place an Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer at the International Space Station. The AMP allows scientists to capture and measure atoms and atomic particles "at levels not measured before," Lehm said.

The AMS requires liquid helium to be stored in a vacuum until it reaches space, where then the natural vacuum takes over. The vacuum assists in keeping the helium in a liquid form.

Synergy Vacuum's role in the mission was to create a lightweight vacuum pump that would meet NASA regulations and not contaminate the atmosphere.

Synergy's oil-free "green" vacuum pump manufactured in Japan beginning about 20 years ago was just the right fit. Consumer confidence was also in place, as the company had been working with NASA since its opening about nine years ago, supplying vacuums in other aspects of space shuttle launches and equipment.

"They wanted a green pump, and that is what we've been working so long on," he said.

The pumps primary use is to transfer the liquid helium into space, so after that goal is achieved, it really serves no other purpose.

"All this work for a piece of space junk," Lehm said jokingly.

Though the pump's future may be space junk, it is not cheap.

The pump is only 14 inches by 20 inches by 8 inches and weighs about 40 pounds. However, NASA's bill came to around $50,000.

Every extra pound that goes into space costs NASA. So, the trick of the project was to keep the pump as light as possible, but still maintain all its important functions. Aluminum replaced heavy steel and problem-causing components were replaced with more reliable parts, Lehm said.

Synergy started in Montrose after Lehm bought the company from Galiso, another Montrose technology manufacturing company that started working with the Japanese pumps. Though Montrose is small, Lehm said there are the beginnings of a support structure required for these high technology jobs.

In the NASA project, he called on the help of Tom Smith of Tom's Motor, who has done reassembling work for Synergy in the past.

FedEx and UPS are also key players, as the company not only sells vacuums, but supplies parts and repairs to companies around the county.

Along with the NASA project, clients of Synergy also include medical facilities, which use the vacuums for sterilization, and satellite companies who must test their product in a vacuum tank before use.

Synergy has about seven employees, both part and full time, along with several other employees stationed around the county.

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