TenPoint Crossbow Technologies CEO Rick Bednar is usually on target.
Bednar was a three-time NCAA archery champ while at the University of Akron, and he also made the 1976 U.S. Olympic archery team. Bednar worked in the archery industry for several years before founding Mogadore, Ohio-based TenPoint in 1994.
So officials at plastics compounding leader PolyOne Corp. have to feel good when an accurate guy like Bednar says that their firm “is exactly what you want in a strategic supplier.”
For more than a year, Avon Lake, Ohio-based PolyOne has been working with TenPoint to find materials that can reduce weight and improve performance in TenPoint's crossbows and related products, including those sold under the Horton and Wicked Ridge brand names. Those product now use soft-touch thermoplastic elastomers, sound-dampening materials and high-strength engineered technologies produced by PolyOne.
PolyOne officials said that the outdoor sports and equipment industry is a growing market for the firm. CEO Robert Patterson said in a news release that sporting goods is another industry where PolyOne's cross-business unit expertise and material solutions “are helping manufacturers succeed and grow.”
TenPoint's crossbows include the Vapor, Venom, Stealth FX4, Lady Shadow, Turbo XLT II and Titan Xtreme. Will the collaboration with PolyOne lead to the launch of an Xtreme Twin-Screw Extruder crossbow?
That's what's called a pointed question.