Company: SwimEx Systems, a division of TPI Composites Inc.
Location: 373 Market St., Warren
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Employees: 30 in SwimEx division; 300 in TPI total
Year Founded: 1986
Annual Sales: Just under $6 million
Athletes recovering from surgery need to recreate their normal motions without putting weight on their injured joint. A Warren company has a solution.
SwimEx Systems, a division of TPI Composites Inc., produces swimming pools designed for aquatic therapy and conditioning. Professional and college sports teams use them. So do hospitals and nursing homes. Private citizens can also have them installed in their homes.
The pools contain a motorized paddle wheel system that generates a current for the swimmer to work against. The current that pushes the water in a steady stream can be as fast as 6.5 mph. The pools’ depth can be adjusted from 4 to 5 to 6 feet deep, depending on their use. The deeper the water, the more buoyant the swimmer. And the more buoyant he is, the less weight he puts on his injured joint. Therapists can therefore use the varying depths for patients who are at different stages of recovery.
SwimEx began in the mid 1980s with a Massachusetts Institute of Technology educated inventor who was tired of waiting to use the pool at the YMCA. He came up with the idea to make a swimming pool that performs the same function as a treadmill. Through a relationship he had with a now defunct Burlington, Mass. company, U.S. Windpower, he formed SwimEx. The inventor’s name was Sy Mermelstein.
TPI got involved in December 1986. The company, a producer of fiber-reinforced plastics, was at the time manufacturing windmill blades for U.S. Windpower. Through its relationship with U.S. Windpower, TPI bought SwimEx and the patent for the wheel propulsion system that accompanied it, said Steve DaSilva, the SwimEx division manager for TPI.
Since 1987 TPI has boosted sales in its SwimEx division from about $1 million in the first year to just under $6 million today, DaSilva said. Its business is now spread among sports clubs, homeowners, hospital and rehabilitation centers, and nursing homes and fitness centers. For example, Rhode Island Hospital installed a SwimEx pool in September of 1999. Patients who have arthritis, spinal problems, osteoporosis, and lower back pain are considered candidates for aquatic therapy.
Individuals who use SwimEx pools generally put an addition onto their house or build a new home around the pool, DaSilva said. A residential pool is generally 6 feet by 12 feet and requires a 200 square-foot room. It also requires a $25,000 to $35,000 investment, not including the cost of installation.
Wealthy baby-boomers looking for a way to exercise indoors are one of the company’s target markets. The product, however, is most appealing to sports clubs, DaSilva said. Aquatic therapy has numerous benefits for healthy and recovering athletes alike, he said.
Athletes attempting to get back into their normal workout routines can start their recovery by working in a pool. This gives them a chance to exercise their injured joints without putting weight on them at first. The rush of the warm water – anywhere from 86 to 90 degrees for rehabilitation work – against the skin also stimulates blood circulation, and the athlete can recreate her normal motions without a lot of pain, DaSilva said.
“That’s where water has its benefits,” DaSilva said. “It really lends itself well to sports therapy.”
As the athlete’s condition improves, she may work in shallower water, putting more weight on the joint. Then, her training will move back on land.
Healthy athletes can also use the pool for conditioning. For example, a baseball player may swing a bat in the water against the current to improve his bat speed. Some of the professional baseball teams that use SwimEx are: The Arizona Diamondbacks, the Atlanta Braves, the Chicago White Sox, and the Cleveland Indians.
Locally, the New England Patriots use SwimEx pools for rehabilitation. Place kicker Adam Vinatieri, defensive end Willie McGinest, and tight end Ben Coates are examples of players who have used the pools to help recover from injuries.
Ron O’Neil, the team’s head trainer since 1984, said the team uses water therapy in the rehabilitation of injuries to a number of body parts, including ankles, biceps, and elbows.
”You have no limitations with this water modality; we haven’t found anything that we can’t do with this,” O’Neil said. “It lends (itself) to creativity.”
For example, working in the water allows the athlete to work on his strength, power, and endurance at the same time, O’Neil said. “You get more characteristics developed with the rehab than you would otherwise – you accomplish more at once,” he said.
TPI, which also makes fiberglass sail and power boats as well as airport shuttle busses that it calls “People Movers,” manufactures its SwimEx pools from its Route 136 plant in Warren. To make it easier to sell pools in different markets, such as Boston, Minneapolis, Seattle, and other Northern sites where people are likely to want indoor pools, the company hires agents who display the pools in the various markets. But the customer buys the product directly from TPI, DaSilva said.
