Using a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Virginia Tech Office of Economic Development joined forces in 2006 with Virginia Tech’s Center for High Performance Manufacturing. Their aim: to help businesses in rural Virginia develop new products or improve existing ones. Their premier project: Applied Felts in Martinsville, a city with the highest unemployment rate in Virginia.
Applied Felts needed to develop a liner for water and sewer pipes that could withstand high-pressure uses. The liners are used to rehab water and sewer pipes through a cured-in-place process so that industries and cities don’t have to dig and replace old pipes.
Applied Felts worked with Jeff Schultz, then a research professor with the Virginia Tech Department of Materials Science and Engineering and now a partner in Schultz-Creehan Holdings Inc., an engineering firm in Blacksburg. He helped the company develop a fiberglass reinforcement that can be incorporated into Applied Felt’s current polyester lining. This brought about a significant improvement in the use of the cured-in-place pipe process for high-pressure applications. Result? New revenue streams and jobs for Southern Virginia.