VorTek is a limited liability company with five Initial Members as the owners of all units. The Initial Members are
On 6 February 2001 two additional members joined the company as follows:
On 18 March 2003 one additional member joined the company as follows:
On 17 January 2006 one of the additional members, Robert R. Asprey, passed away. His portion of the ownership of VorTek was transferred to his estate.
By means of a private placement involving no more than 12 qualified investors, additional units will be distributed. These investors represent Additional Members of the company. In accordance with Public Law 106-50, VorTek is classified as a service-disabled veteran-owned business.
EAI, the parent company of VorTek, is a closely held corporation founded in 1978 by its owner Dr. Tatom. During its twenty-three year history, EAI has carried out engineering research and development studies under contract with more than 43 different government and private agencies.
In 1990, as part of a Company-funded study, Dr. Tatom developed the SATT software for use in tornado risk assessment. On 26 February 1990 the U.S. Copyright Office issued Copyright # TXu 407 344 entitled "TORNADO, Tornado Threat Assessment Program" to EAI for the original software. On 5 July 1990, Copyright # TXu 474 764 entitled "SATT, Site Assessment of Tornado Threat Program" was issued to EAI by the U.S. Copyright office for the improved version of the software.
In July 1992 Dr. Tatom originated the SDT concept and initiated an ongoing company-funded research effort to develop the idea, including patent applications. On 21 September 1992 Dr. Tatom began collaborating with Dr. Vitton on the concept. On 3 January 1995 Patent # 5,379,025 entitled "Method and Apparatus for Seismic Tornado Detection" was issued to EAI by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office with Dr. Tatom listed as the inventor and Dr. Vitton as the co-inventor. This patent covered the detection of the short-period tornadic seismic signal.
On 3 April 1995 EAI entered into a working agreement with SCI to continue the development of the SDT concept. As a result of this arrangement the portable SDT instrument packages or "Snails" were jointly developed by EAI and SCI. This agreement ended on 28 June 1996 with SCI surrendering all interest in the concept.
On 24 June 1996 EAI was awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I contract by the Department of Commerce to prove the feasibility of the SDT concept. This contract was successfully completed on 24 December 1996. On 1 August 1997 the Department of Commerce awarded EAI a Phase II SBIR contract to develop the SDT concept to the point of implementation. On 1 September 1998 Patent # 5,801,636 entitled "Method and Apparatus for Seismic Tornado Detection" was issued to EAI by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office with Dr. Tatom listed as the inventor and Dr. Vitton as the co-inventor. This patent covered the detection of both the short-period and the long-period tornadic seismic signals. The SBIR Phase II contract was successfully completed on 1 November 1998.
Under the terms of the SBIR contracts EAI has retained all rights for the commercialization of the SDT concept and is encouraged by the Department of Commerce to proceed with such commercialization. This type of a business activity is quite different from the normal business interests of EAI. For that reason, Dr. Tatom reached the decision to form VorTek as a separate corporation, which has the manufacture and sale of SDT products as its primary business interest.
As an outgrowth of experience gained from the SDT system, the concept of measuring the weights of moving trucks arose. In 1998 Dr. Tatom began collaborating with Mr. Herndon on the Seismic Weigh-in-Motion (SWIM) concept.
Under contract with the Florida Department of Transportation in 2000, VorTek conducted a feasibility study dealing with the use of the SWIM 1.0 model at two different weighing stations. The results of the study confirmed the relationship between truck weight and seismic signal, but data scatter, in terms of actual weight versus measured weight was a problem. A second study was conducted in 2001 with the SWIM 1.0 model at the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) track operated by Auburn University. Although the results were encouraging some unexplained data scatter remained. In both of these tests with the SWIM 1.0 model, because of system limitations, the seismic data collected were not processed on site in real time. In more recent tests, conducted in 2003 in Huntsville, Alabama, with the SWIM 2.0 model, real-time data processing was possible, but data scatter has remained a cause for concern. In an effort to improve performance, SWIM 3.0 has been developed.
On 17 February 2004 Patent #6,692,567 B1 entitled "Seismic Weigh-In-Motion System" was issued with Dr. Tatom and Mr. Herndon listed as coinventors.
In March 2008 ownership of the SWIM patent, along with responsibility for further development, was transferred to Smart Vibrations, LLC, a newly formed offshoot of VorTek.
As an extension of VorTek’s seismic experience with the SWIM system, in 2005 Dr. Tatom in collaboration with Mr. Herndon began the development of the Structural Acoustic Weigh-In-Motion (SAWIM) concept designed for detecting overweight trucks on bridges. On 11 October 2006 Provisional Patent Application 60/725,592 entitled "Structural Acoustic Weigh-In-Motion (SAWIM) Concept" was filed, with Dr. Tatom listed as first inventor and Mr. Herndon listed as additional joint inventor.
In March 2008 ownership of the SAWIM patent, along with responsibility for further developments, was transferred to Smart Vibrations, LLC, a newly formed offshoot of VorTek.
VorTek has been granted unrestricted rights by EAI to the SDT concept. VorTek has been granted unrestricted rights for the use and sale of the SATT software.
VorTek is currently co-located with Engineering Analysis Inc. at 715 Arcadia Circle, Huntsville, Alabama. EAI's modern facilities, consisting of 2230 square feet of office space, contain standard office and engineering equipment, providing a pleasant working environment for the conduct of engineering and scientific studies. Appropriate support services including clerical, accounting, graphic arts, technical editing, technical library, reproduction, digital computation, and word processing are also provided. EAI maintains personal computers, printers, and plotters for use as stand-alone computational platforms, with remote communications available via modem.
The company headquarters and most office facilities will remain in Huntsville, Alabama. With the installation of each new SDT network in a tornado-prone region, however, some additional facilities will be established in the same region. In this regard the most significant items will be the Moles and the Data Control Center (DCC) within the SDT network. The Moles will be distributed throughout the region, spaced approximately 10 miles apart. The DCC will be located within the facility of the cooperating broadcast company. In addition to the DCC equipment itself, a limited amount of space would be set aside for VorTek personnel to carry out routine office activities on an intermittent basis, primarily concerned with network support and testing.