Maxis Corp., Gilbert, Ariz., has purchased the patent rights to the Pull-It 3000 and Pull-It 1000 cable pullers and has joined forces with the inventor of the products, Brian Ray, of Ray Practical Technologies, also of Gilbert, to market the pullers nationally. The Pull-It 3000 was a finalist for the 2002 CEE News/EC&M Product of the Year award.
“We knew we acquired a great product,” says Bob Pothier, CEO of Maxis Corp., “but now we believe the pullers will revolutionize the way electricians pull wire.”
In 1990, Pothier, a venture capitalist, won the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the year award by taking a struggling consumer electronics firm and turning it into an industry leader. Pothier hopes to repeat his successes and establish Maxis Corp. as a leader in developing innovative tools for the construction industry.
“This is just the kind of opportunity we look for,” said Pothier. “We found a great product in the Pull-It 3000 and a genius in its inventor Brian Ray.”
Ray developed the pullers after more than 20 years experience pulling electrical wire. Ray, whose pullers are powered by commercial drills, came up with the idea of using a commercial drill to power a wire pulling device when he became frustrated about having to tie up five of his workers on a 300-foot cable pull at an Arizona service station.
“We were on a job and we had three guys pulling on the cable and two guys feeding it,” he said. “I said, ‘This is ridiculous,’ and went down to the truck and grabbed a drill and an 18-in. drill bit, and then slid a piece of PVC over the top of it. The bell end of the PVC fit right over the chuck of the drill. I cut off a piece of the PVC, drilled three little holes where it fit into the hole of the chuck, and wrapped a rope around that piece of PVC. It worked great.”
After building a frame to support the device, he developed a prototype, which helped him secure a marketing agreement with Greenlee Textron Inc., Rockford, Ill. That product, marketed as the Li'l Tugger,” won the 2000 CEE News Product of the Year award.
Ray, now director of research and development at Maxis Corp, will now be selling that puller as well as the Pull-It 3000 through Maxis Corp. He and Paul Pothier, director of sales and marketing, want to develop other ideas into money-saving tools for the construction industry.
“We want to explode into the market place and turn a lot of heads,” said Pothier. “We have the fastest, easiest and smartest pullers in the industry, and now it's our job to help contractors start saving time, energy and money.”
Maxis is preparing for its national launch in September and is now recruiting manufacturers' reps and distributors to sell the product.