ROME, N.Y. -- A company in Rome is celebrating 100 years of being in business, and while you might not have heard of them, you probably have their products in your homes.
It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but inside Varflex Corporation, there’s a lot of activity.
The company has around 1,000 machines pumping out materials that get used in everyday electronics.
One of their main products is a spaghetti-like tubing used to cover electric wiring.
Rick Greggains is the vice president of the company.
"We use it for extra protection over electrical wires. You see it a lot in aerospace, small appliances, Miller welders. Harley-Davidson is another big one," Greggains said.
Greggains said much of Varflex's success is because of the dedicated employees.
He said many have been at the company for decades, with some making it to 50 years.
That’s a long time, but not nearly as long as some of the equipment still in operation.
"We have about 1,000 braiders set up to run on the floor right now, and as far as we can go back to our records, we have four from 1931 that are still in operation today. They might be older that that, but as far as our record keeping, that’s as far back as we can tell. They may have been one of the first ones that they started with in 1924," he said.
In 2014 the company expanded, bringing their twist and ply operations to a new plant on Success Drive.
Varflex continues to grow and ship worldwide with new materials and new product lines.
They’re now working on a new product you might get hooked on.
"We have one customer that we do some stuff for that he makes some fly lures out of. Fishing line is a new one that we just been getting into with another company that we’re dealing with. It’s going out to the West Coast for a 20-pound and a 30-pound test, so we’ve helped develop that with them. And we’re still working on that process right now," Greggains said.
Written By: Kirk Tupaj
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