As one of many employees celebrating working anniversaries with Spectrum Industries Inc. this year, Travis Edinger, a R&D Technician for Spectrum’s Quality and Safety Department, celebrated 32 years with Spectrum in September.
On a daily basis, Edinger creates, develops, and tests the quality and durability of products.
“I work with the product development department and have them test and analyze new ideas and concepts to see if a design might work,” Edinger said. “And when all the tests come together at the end of testing, I make one final test report. I look at things through the eyes of safety, quality, and a durability perspective.”
In Edinger’s early career, he worked as a carpenter and went to school at Chippewa Valley Technical College. There he took different types of drafting classes and was able to expand his 3D mindset. His schooling and experience as a carpenter helped him land his first job with Spectrum as a Draftsman in 1986.
“The reason why I stayed at Spectrum was because of Dave Hancock,” Edinger said. “I worked very closely with him on a variety of projects. He’s been very fair and generous, I felt like he understood me.”
Spectrum Industries originally started in 1968 as Cygnet Films in Illinois. Over the years Spectrum grew into the furniture business and Edinger has been involved in many different areas of the company.
“I’ve been involved in design, research, sales, marketing, packaging, quality, safety, technical support and I’ve been in a managerial position,” Edinger said. “I’ve been able to work outside the box as far as even building maintenance. I was involved in a lot of the remodeling for the Johnson Street facility.”
Edinger works as an R&D Technician at Spectrum’s Johnson Street location. With his job, he tests products to ensure they will be safe for the customer to use.
“Most of the tests that we do are pre-formatted test standards set by ANSI-BIFMA or UL,” Edinger said. “We try to adhere as closely as we can to those test formats. We send our products to Intertek to get certified and pre-establish in our in-house testing that they will get certified. I have several sets of standards that I reference. We do all the testing in-house first before it gets sent out, so there should be no surprises with the outside testing results. If there is a unique function, we evaluate it very closely.”
With Edinger’s 32 years of experience at Spectrum, he has been involved in many product releases and is pleased with his time spent with the company.
“I helped design some of Spectrum’s older products,” Edinger said. “Such as our bunkbeds. I was actually the primary designer on our Class line originally, the 71000 line, and the hi-tech line. I am proud of the fact that working at Spectrum I have my name on three different patents. One was for the Teleboard, one was for the FPM desk system, and the other was on Dave Hancock’s weight machine. Dave patented a continual force in movement, a system on stainless steel.”
Edinger’s history with Spectrum has been nothing short of impressive. With so many different positions over the years, Edinger is an expert in understanding design, product procurement, and safety.
“This company has given me endless opportunities and for that I am extremely grateful,” Edinger said.