Carson firm's calculators going on store shelves

A Carson City firm that makes specialized calculators for real estate, construction and other fields has its first mass market product hitting the nation's store shelves.

The ProjectCalc, which helps do-it-yourselfers and woodworkers measure and estimate materials needed for projects, is being shipped from Calculated Industries' Hytech Drive warehouse to retailers such as Sears and Lowe's Home Improvement stores.

The bright yellow handheld device, which will sell for about $15-$20, helps figure how much wallpaper, paint, tile, gravel, lumber or brick is needed for a project, converting between English and metric units if needed.

The entry of the 22-year-old company into the mass market will likely trigger the second expansion of CI's Carson headquarters since it relocated from Yorba Linda, Calif., in 1995.

"Not only are we selling more units, but the retail packaging, those large plastic clamshells that display the product on store racks, take substantially more space," CI president Steve Kennedy explained Thursday, "That carton used to hold 75 items in the old cardboard boxes. It holds 24 of the units in clamshells."

So Kennedy and CI chief executive officer Ken Alexander have started to discuss adding 10,000 to15,000 square feet of warehouse space to the headquarters. The building now has 12,000 square feet of office space and 5,000 of warehouse.

The company started in 1978 when Alexander and his brother Fred decided to develop and market a handheld calculator that would help real estate agents and loan officers determine whether clients could qualify for the mortgage needed to buy a property. The calculator, the Qualifier, had the software built in for figuring interest rates, monthly payments, amortization schedules and down payments.

The Qualifier went up against financial calculators from major electronics manufacturers Texas Instruments and Hewlett Packard.

"Our products gave the users exactly the functions they used the most, with the fewest buttons to push so they were easy to learn and use," Kennedy said. And the company encouraged feedback from buyers, adding requested functions through several generations of the device. It's now called the Qualifier Plus IIx.

With the Qualifier popular in the real-estate industry, the Alexanders extended the concept to other fields.

One series of calculators, the ElectriCalcs, helps electrical contractors and engineers solve design problems such as voltage drop, wire size and DC resistance.

The ConcreteCalc accurately figures how much concrete is needed for a project, which prevents costly under- or over-loads.

HeavyCalc figures the amount of earth that must be moved by heavy equipment so estimators can accurately bid projects.

And Construction Masters are used to determine roof angles, find dimensions for stairs and rafters and solve problems involving post holes, arches, and pillars, among others.

"Some of the ideas start with us. Sometimes people suggest them," Alexander said. "One teacher had an idea for a grading calculator for averages, grading scales, weighted grades and so on.

"He went to the big guys, but they weren't interested. Then he tried himself to get it made. Our manufacturer in Asia referred him to us."

Now the teacher gets a license fee for each GradeMatic 4000 sold by CI. Other calculators help audio, film and video editors calculate time factors, help sailors navigate and help project planners schedule the time required for each phase of the project.

For most of the devices, the main difference is how the buttons are labeled and the programming burned into a ROM chip.

"Basically, we sell software in a box," Alexander said. "We're competing with software to be used in computers, but our buyers prefer the portability, having exactly the functions they need and not having to wait for a notebook computer to boot up."

The company also makes specialized devices for electronically assisted measurement.

One type, the Scale Master, resembles a pen with a roller in place of a point. It can be rolled over blueprints to calculate electrical conduit or plumbing pipe runs, lumber requirements and so on. The Scale Masters have buttons and electronic displays to show the resulting areas or lengths and one can even download the information into a computer's spreadsheet.

And the DigiRollers do the same thing at the job site, with large wheels that are rolled along to measure walls, walks, fences or other surfaces.

Three other devices use ultrasonic waves to measure rooms and walls for decorators, wallpaperers, carpet layers or painters.

Calculated industries ended up in Carson City after the death of Fred Alexander in 1992, leaving his widow Judy and brother Ken owning and running the company.

"That prompted thoughts about how long you want to keep doing the same thing in the same place," Ken Alexander said.

He had a home at Glenbrook by Lake Tahoe and was attracted to Nevada by tax advantages and the quality of life here. However, he said, trying to build a headquarters near Tahoe was never a consideration.

"Carson City is central enough for us. Our finished products come across the Pacific by ship and get here within a day of when they would in California," he said. "We ship out by FedEx, UPS and the postal service based on what's cheapest by distance and weight. We've never had a significant problem with any of it."

And the tax advantages have lived up to expectations, Alexander said.

Kennedy said the company brought a dozen employees to Carson City in 1995 and hired about 20 here. Eight of the original dozen are still working for CI and enjoying Carson City, he said. The total staff here is now 42.

Judy Alexander and Ken Alexander each have offices at CI, but are in what Alexander called semi-retirement with Kennedy responsible for day-to-day operations. Alexander said he spends much of his time fishing and recently returned from the Bahamas.

He said he has another California company, Rice Hydro Inc. in Ontario, he will soon move to Carson city. The company manufactures hydrostatic test pumps used to pressurize underground water and gas lines to test them for leaks. While CI's manufacturing is done in the Far East, Rice will assemble the pumps in Carson City, he said.