Exclusive Features

Like its owner, Global Metal Finishing is driven to always pursue the next level of quality standards.

By Tim O’Connor

Success is often about being in the right place at the right time. For Tamea Franco, one night in the early 1990s changed the entire trajectory of her career.

Operation Desert Storm had just begun when representatives from defense contractor ITT Corp. showed up at Franco’s anodized aluminum shop, East West DyeCom. They wanted to know whether Franco could anodize a casting for a shipment of night vision goggles, a process that would insulate the surface of the goggles and protect them from electrical interference. The ITT reps showed up around 5 p.m. and needed the casting back by 10 p.m. to make their next shipment to troops in the Middle East.

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Vigilant is helping manufacturers weed out marijuana in the workplace.

By Bianca Herron

As marijuana use has risen, more employees are testing positive for it at work. In just four years, the positivity rate for saliva marijuana tests rose nearly 75 percent – up from 5.1 percent in 2013 to 8.9 percent in 2016 - according to a report by workplace testing provider Quest Diagnostics.

This spike in marijuana use has not only left manufacturers in desperate need of skilled workers, but also raises questions as to whether or not they should scale back testing or alter the types of testing they conduct, says Vigilant Employment Attorney and Strategic Services Director Jodi Slavik.

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LiquiGuard’s newest innovative coating protects marine vessels from microorganism buildup.

By Tim O’Connor

It’s a problem that’s been going on since the days of Odysseus. When a ship is still in the water, it’s bound to attract some unwanted riders. But now coating manufacturer LiquiGuard has a patent-pending innovation that protects vessels from barnacles, zebra mussels and other bio-fouling organisms, with a durability that exceeds other current solutions.

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