During ski season, resorts and skiers alike depend on snowmaking equipment to keep the slopes in top form. Who makes the machines that make the snow? One of the leading manufacturers is Snow Machines Inc., which has served over 800 resorts around the world, including the site of the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

The company was founded in 1969 and adopted Midland, Michigan as its home in 1974. Through the years, the company’s engineers have enhanced the machines’ production capacities and efficiency.

Those improvements don’t occur by mere happenstance. More than $1 million is invested each year in snowmaking research and development. The SMI factory is equipped with what the company touts as the only dedicated and integrated snowmaking research and testing facility at a snowmaking production facility in the world. The factory also includes four CNC machines, allowing SMI to make many of its own parts.

Snowmaking equipment must be integrated with advanced water pumps. As SMI’s web site notes, “From sophisticated and complex intakes with icing conditions to high velocity rivers to alpine lakes and reservoirs, SMI engineers can assist with the engineering details behind getting the water to the pumps.” In projects such as the snowmaking for the Olympics in Sochi, SMI worked closely with an expert pump manufacturing company for several years to produce, test and maintain the equipment in the lead-up to the winter games.