LEWISBURG, Pa. — If you know anything about wrestling, you may be familiar with Resilite. The company near Northumberland is the leading manufacturer of wrestling mats.
"Our core business has always been wrestling mats, but over the years we've expanded into rock wall climbing, police training mats—a variety of different products," said Jenn Dearmitt, the president and CEO.
Dearmitt says $3.5 million of the company's annual sales come from its Zip Mat product. The Zip Mat works sort of like a Ziploc bag.
"People really appreciate not having the expense of tape every season and it's pretty easy to set up and tear down," Dearmitt said.
But there's a problem. The machine used to make the Zip Mat is no longer produced by its manufacturer.
"Right now, we can find parts, but we do see in the future it could be a big problem for us," Dearmitt said.
That's why Resilite is partnering with Bucknell University's College of Engineering. Bucknell's Small Business Development Center helped secure a state grant to bring students on board.
"The goal was to come here and understand how the mat welding process works and then create a new machine that fixes a lot of the problems they're having, including the fact that they only have one and if it breaks, they no longer have a way to produce their product," Prof. Craig Beal said.
Four students from Bucknell's mechanical engineering program are working on the project to build Resilite a new zip welder.
"I never thought I'd be involved in something so big. I heard they do $3.5 million in sales. That's a really astounding number to me and I think that's cool," Joseph Carey said.
"Whatever we design, it needs to work. It needs to do its job well. At the end of it, hopefully, we'll have a product we're proud of and we'll have an impact on something bigger than a grade at the end of the year," Hunter Vestal said.
The students hope to have a finished product by the end of the academic year.
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