S.R. Smith boasts a 70-year history of innovation and quality in the manufacture of state-of-the-art diving boards, stainless steel handrails and ladders for swimming pools and, since 1985, water slides.

The company prides itself on its fast turn around for both stock and custom products. The 130-employee company maintains a small engineering team at its corporate headquarters in Oregon that can handle most day-to-day challenges.

However, when it began developing rotational-molded pool slides, the company teamed with an Ohio-based manufacturer with deep expertise in that process.

After developing several successful products together, the Ohio-based manufacturer ceased offering product development services, and to keep its place at the head of the competition, S.R. Smith put two large development projects out for bid: the design of its new 7'4"-tall Typhoon(TM) slide, and the redesign of the ladder for its popular 8'-tall TurboTwister(TM) slide.

"We had worked with MAGNET's Mike Kaminski, when he was with our previous development partner," says Bill Svendsen, engineering manager for S.R. Smith. "Although MAGNET's bid was higher than some we received, we decided the low bidders probably did not really understand the complexity of the project. We knew the MAGNET team had an intimate knowledge of the rotational-mold manufacturing process and all the design requirements to make the product manufacturable."