a A8 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, August 31, 2005 oo TERRACE STANDARD BusINESS RevIEW 3 Cleaning up the vacuum industry _ ; By KAT LEE _— IT LOOKS like a normal vacuum hose. ° . Until Scott, Walter takes his newest in-_ vention apart and starts explaining what’s inside. Walter’s Quick-Click modular hose. sys- : - tem boasts four new features aimed to make. : a clean sweep in the vacuuming industry. “This will make vacuuming much easier. for quite a few different reasons,” said the Terrace local. First, there’s a removable handgrip that makes it easy to access clogs that build up right at the front of the hose. . . Then there’s.a modular hose; with one hose 20 feet and the other hose 15 feet, they ‘can. click together or separate to become -. different lengths depending on the. need. Standard built-in vacuum hose lengths are a static 35 feet. — _ Long lengths of hose usually kink up, but “ ‘the triple swivel in the Quick-Click elimi-. nates that problem. ' Finally, there’s a- joining system that ” twists: apart easily. Walter said it’s easy for : people’ with arthritis to manage, opposed to . having to push a button and pull. Walter knows this: and: much more be- _ cause he’s’beeni in the vacuum: ‘business for. more than 20 years. * A's the owner of Northern Vacuum and - Sewing Center for the past seven years, Wal- .ter deals with his customers and has heard_ ‘problems about clogging, twisted hoses, dif- ficulties fitting compartments together, and . Tequests for different hose lengths. So he decided to do something about it. “{ can make drawings and prototypes, 7 ‘but how do you get something so that it’s “ made?”. he asked himself. "He started researching how plastic and mould injections .work, ‘searching the inter- net and travelling around the world. He then found an independent engineering, team who > would design the hose he had in mind. After going to big industry trade shows, he learned the marketing process and pitched his prototype to the right people: Big names ° like Hoover, Matsushita, Kenmore and Pan- ; asonic were interested in Walter's idea. - He then researched manufacturing ‘com- panies ‘in‘China for a year and a half to find which would give him the best quality for the lowest price. He found a quality control manager through industry leaders to be his liaison in China. i (The ‘same manager, who also looks over prodi ts for big companies. like Wal-Mart, . ' market,” ‘ inventions haven’t been introduced to indus- SCOTT WALTER | is the type of guy who really knows his product. KAT LEE PHOTO. Home Depot and Sears,.said he’d never seen .° such a complex product before. Because his product requires so many parts and involves four different industries, Walter needs six ' different factories to make the hose. The long hours haven’t deterred him. Three years after he started turning an idea into reality, Walter is now holding an al- most-finished version of his invention in his hand. Although the moulds. for his modular hose cost half a million dollars and he’s sunk a money into approvals and patents, Walter is confident he’ll make a return. * “Right now, I’ve got 100 per cent'of the he said, since the majority of his try. “Most people would be happy with three per cent.” Walter said that even though his patent may be strong enough to keep competitors out, copies of his product will only help the industry grow. “This is not a fad,” he said. “This is rela- tive to every home and business to the indus- trialized world.” While still in a lengthy patenting process, Walter will do some more small refinements before sending it off to the Canadian Stan- dards Association. The Quick-Click should be with vacuum distributors next year. And the inventor is already scheming up his next projéct. Runway open house AIRPORT OFFICIALS will showcase their extendéd runway this Saturday with an open house beginning at noon. With that will come events marking the fifth anniversary of local carrier. Hawkair and possibly an appearance in Terrace of _one of Air Canada Jazz’s newer jets. The extension, completed in July, added - 1,500 feet,to the Northwest Regional Air- — port’s main 6,000 foot runway as part of an effort by the airport to-attract more carriers and larger aircraft. There'll be a few short speeches begin- ning at 12:30 p.m. at the airport’s mainte- nance building followed by a chance to walk — around on the new runway, says airport _ manager Laurie. Brown.. “Not many people. ‘get an opportunity to walk out on to a runway and this will be their chance,” he said. The runway. walk will be shortened if Air Canada does bring i in a jet as the scheduled ‘landing time is 1:20 p.m. Air Canada is now using 50-seat Cana- dair-made Regional Jets (RJs) back east and they’ve been slowly introducing them out _ west. If the jet isn’t available, the runway will be cleared a bit later to make way for. sched- uled arrivals of Air Canada and Hawkair. The Jazz jet appearance plan hinges on whether or not the company can switch from a Dash 8 to the RJ for its Saturday afternoon flight. If that does happen, the RJ will arrive earlier than the Dash 8 because it is a faster aircraft. “Yes, we have a request and we are look- ing at it,” said Jazz official Manon Stuart about the’ ‘possibility. « Hawkair’s Jocelyn Lindenbach’ said peo- ple will also be able to tour a parked Dash 8 and ask questions of employees. Members of the public will also be able to get a.close look at the airport’s various. © snowclearing: and maintenance equipment, said Brown. On display.as well will be draw- ings for the planned main terminal. building renovation and expansion which is sched- uled to start this fall. Part of the project involves making room for a now-required baggage screening sys- temanda larger hold room, with washrooms, for checked-in passengers. “We expect final bids in toward the end of September and we’ll be full on after that,” said Brown of the construction schedule. - He’s anticipating most of the construction will be done by the end of the year, leading toward an end of December deadline to have* the baggage screening system in place. -The maintenance building is past the air ‘cadet hall on the left hand side of the road. iorthwest Regional Airport Terrace-Kitimat SATURDAY SEPT. 3, 2005 12:00 Noon RIBBON CUTTING at the NORTHWEST REGIONAL AIRPORT © Tour the maintenance garage © Enjoy cake and coffee ® See the future plans of the Airport Terminal building © Short walking tour of new Runway Extension © Take in Jazz & Hawkair landings from 1:20 - 2:00 p.m. £635-TIPS 4 4 CRIME pill €TOPPERS _K’san House Society will be holding their Annual General Meeting Tuesday, September 13, 2005 © 6:00 p.m. at 4724 Lazelle Avenue | Everyone Welcome Tech Seminar winterize your motorcycle "must pre- register by Sept 7. - Harley Davidson of Smithers 4320 Highway 16 west, Smithers 847-3784 © 1-800-410-5473 On Sunday, kids 10 and under can bite into any Kid’s Meal for only $2.99 with the purchase of an adult meal. Make this a Super Sunday at Boston Pizza. lt S out of this world! Not valid with any other promotional offer. Dine in only. Available for a limited time only. 4924 Highway 16 West, Terrace ° 635-3443 OPEN DAILY: Monday - Thursday 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Friday & Saturday 11:00 am. to 2:00 a.m. ¢ Sunday 11:00 a. m. to 12. 00 midnight Boston Pizza International Inc. 2005 Registered Trademarks of Boston Pizza Royalties Limited Partnership, used under license. www.bostonpizza.com