St. Charles company’s product named one of the ‘coolest’ made in Illinois

Bison Gear and Engineering Corp. officials always knew the company’s pull tight pool cover gearmotor was a pretty cool product.

And apparently the public thinks so too. The product was recently named as being one of the 16 coolest products made in Illinois as part of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association Makers Madness contest.

“We made progress,” said Andy Kuester, vice president of marketing and sales for the St. Charles company. “Last year, we just missed the final 16 and we made it this year. So that’s good.”

This is the third year of the contest. On April 27, the coolest thing made in Illinois will be named.

More than 400 products were submitted in this year’s contest. This year, Bison is celebrating its 25th anniversary in St. Charles.

“Manufacturing has always played a vital role in Illinois’ economy and this contest is a celebration of the innovation and ingenuity that sets our industry apart,” said Mark Denzler, president and CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association. “It’s also a reminder about the importance of investing in American manufacturing as the pandemic created global supply disruptions that could be minimized by ensuring production remains here at home. We also celebrate the amazing women and men who make these great products.”

Fittingly enough, Bison’s tagline is, “We make your products go.”

“Whatever your product is, we kind of give it the power to make it move,” Kuester said. “With the pandemic and everything and everybody trying to turn their backyard into an oasis and a refuge, if you will, we’ve seen just a huge spike in that market’s growth. That market is growing on the order of about 40% a year.”

He believes one reason the product received so many votes and was named one of the 16 coolest products made in Illinois is because people can relate to it.

“They understand that it is associated with a residential pool or a commercial pool, that kind of thing,” Kuester said. “Whereas maybe some of the entries didn’t get that kind of connection.”

According to the product’s description, the pull tight pool cover gearmotor was originally designed for electric pool covers. Kuester explained the benefits of the product.

“You think about a pool cover and it could be there for a multitude of reasons,” he said. “It could be there from an energy standpoint. By covering the pool, you’re not using as much energy to heat the pool, especially in various climates. And there’s a huge safety aspect also. Most of the customers that we sell our motors to for that application, their pool covers are such that you could literally have a dog or a child or an adult walk across the pool cover without falling in and risk drowning or anything like that. And then instead of having it be a manual operation where someone has to manually roll it out, what our product does is basically provides power to it. So with literally a flip of the switch, they can open or close their pool covers.”

The product can also withstand heavy rains and flooding.

“It’s rated to be submersible, if you will,” Kuester said. “Even though it’s not necessarily designed to be under water, it can withstand that. Basically the mechanism and the motor sit in a pit at the end of pool. So it’s not uncommon that could fill with some water or the pool gets overfilled or something like that.”