LUZERNE COUNTY, Pa. — Whether prepping for a party, getting a caffeine fix, or crafting supplies, there's a good chance you've interacted with something made at Trion Industries near Wilkes-Barre.
"There's a good chance that at least once a day, you are touching something that was made in this building," said Adam Thalenfeld, president of Trion Industries.
Trion's merchandising technology was invented by Adam Thalenfeld's grandfather in 1965.
"My grandfather David Thalenfeld owned a five-and-dime store and thought there needed to be a better way to sell his product, and so he first invented the pegboard hook," Thalenfeld said. "In the '80s, they expanded from hooks, closed the five and dime store. They moved to Wilkes-Barre and expanded their manufacturing to do all sorts of shelving, from hooks to trays to plastic extrusion, label holders, and other things like that."
Trion employs more than 250 people, many of whom gave Newswatch 16 a tour of the massive facility.
A large spool of metal wiring, in different sizes, is stored in the factory and used for different purposes, depending on the size and weight of the item that needs to be displayed.
The wire goes through machines partly designed by Adam's grandfather to bend and sometimes weld metal into the desired shapes.
"We have a lot of specialized machines. We do all of our tooling in-house. Our casting of the tools is done here by our engineering department. We have wire melt benders, we have welders, plastic extrusion machines, and a couple of custom-designed machines that cut pieces exactly to our measurements that we've designed them to do."
For attachments that can't be welded by machines, human hands take over. Hundreds of components are welded together every day by employees.
Many safety precautions are in place, such as having two fingers to trigger the machine.
The next step for many of these components is paint. Parts are hung on a conveyor belt, where they are washed, dried, and then sprayed with magnetic paint that has an interesting texture and clings to the metal before it is baked in an oven.
Other components are made elsewhere in the factory. For instance, a plastic extrusion machine makes plastic label displays attached to the painted metal pieces in assembly and packaging.
Metal and plastic components made at Trion are assembled with a spring and will eventually be used to display prepackaged salads in Texas.
These are just a few of the thousands of projects Trion has on the docket on any given day.
Thalenfeld says as businesses continue to do more with less, Trion's offerings will also continue to change and evolve.
So, the next time you pop into a convenience store for a necessity, you may have someone at Trion to thank for making it easy to find.