Snapshot: Creation of a cornerstone

By Sigrid Tornquist

Every year Hal Lapping sets a personal goal to develop a new product or make improvements in existing products. One such product for the company is the Trio® Frame Tent System—one frame and three cover styles—that has become the cornerstone tent product for Economy Tent Intl. Lapping and his team developed the product in 2004 and since then have continued to add improvements to the product, including color coding caps on the ends of the tubing to denote different sizes and lengths and keep out dirt; adding alignment lines on tubing; and telescoping legs.

“The Trio Frame Tent System was definitely our greatest achievement. It changed the destiny of our company in a positive way,” Lapping says. “The system was innovative for the industry, engineered from the ground up, and had all the features our customers had asked us to incorporate. It really changed the way the frame tent was engineered, wind-load tested, manufactured and constructed.”

Lapping and his crew have continued to develop additional fittings for different applications of the product. “Sometimes we come up with a larger change and sometimes we just tweak the product to make it a little bit better,” Lapping says. “We’re always thinking about how we can continue to improve our products.”

Sigrid Tornquist is a freelance author and editor based in St. Paul, Minn. She is also the associate editor of InTents magazine, a publication of the Industrial Fabrics Association International.