Nathan Caldwell Welding Company has decided to sell an improved design of gate posts. The posts will sell for $790 per set and have a variable cost of $390 per set. The company has spent $149,000 for a marketing study that determined the company will sell 53,000 sets per year for seven years. The marketing study also determined that the company will lose sales of 9,400 sets of its high-priced posts. The high-priced posts sell at $1,090 and have variable costs of $690. The company will also increase sales of its cheap posts by 10,900 sets. The cheap posts sell for $430 and have variable costs of $225 per set. The fixed costs each year will be $9,090,000. The company has also spent $1,100,000 on research and development for the new posts. The plant and equipment required will cost $28,630,000 and will be depreciated on a straight-line basis. The new posts will also require an increase in net working capital of $1,290,000 that will be returned at the end of the project. The tax rate is 34 percent, and the cost of capital is 10 percent.

a. Calculate the payback period.

Payback Period= years (Do not round intermediate calculations and round your answer to 3 decimal places, e.g., 32.161.)

b. Calculate the NPV.

NPV = $ (Do not round intermediate calculations and round your answer to 2 decimal places, e.g., 32.16.)