When the U.S. bobsled team set out to win Olympic gold, its path to victory ran straight through Maury County, where an innovative company is researching and developing products that help customers improve their personal, team and business performance. Looking for ways to get down the bobsled course faster, the 2010 Olympic team sought help from Experimental Design & Analysis Solutions Inc. (EDAS). The company makes Ripxx, a GPS-enabled device that empowers top athletes and weekend warriors who want to measure their performance.

The bobsled team aren't the only customers relying on ideas and products developed in Maury County. Health-conscious individuals turn to Integrity Nutraceuticals International for scientifically researched dietary supplements. The world’s copper mining industry depends on Cytec Industries for a method of extracting the valuable metal from the earth without the need for costly and environmentally damaging smelting. Industries everywhere depend on Numatics Actuator Group for products that enable automated compressed air equipment to operate efficiently.

Creating New Technology

Elizabeth Crutcher, operational coordinator for Cytec, could be speaking for many of Maury County’s businesses when she explains how the company has found success for 54 years in Mt. Pleasant, where it employs 120 workers. Worldwide the company employs about 9,000 people.

"Innovation," Crutcher says. "We’ve been successful in improving safety and our processes."

Innovation is a daily task at EDAS, where a group of rocket scientists developed Ripxx during their free time. EDAS recently spun Ripxx off as a wholly owned subsidiary. The company’s original business, developing high-end vibration testing solutions for jet engines and other high-performance industrial applications with a low tolerance for error, is what pays the bills.

EDAS' customers include Pratt and Whitney, General Electric, Honeywell and the Department of Defense. "It takes time to build a new technology," CEO Kurt Nichol says. "Maury is exactly the right place to do that," he says. The company moved to Spring Hill in 2008 after concluding that its location in neighboring Williamson County was too expensive both for the business and for its 15 employees.

Being the CEO of the company that makes Ripxx has its advantages, Nichol says. "There aren’t many people who can say they’ve pulled five Gs in a bobsled on the Olympic track at Lake Placid with Steve Holcomb (a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. team in 2010). I have,” he says.

Next year he just might find himself rowing with the U.S. canoe and kayak teams, which are using the BlackBerry-sized Ripxx to train for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Ordinary sports enthusiasts who want to keeps a record of, and perhaps brag about, their performance can strap on the original device or download Ripxx apps to their smart phones.