Northwest Aerospace News December | January Issue No. 12 | Page 44

Employees and the family connection
The company Facebook page tells a story
about Cascade Gasket through the myriad
of photos featuring Halloween parties, spirit
days, employee weddings, and other holiday
events. CEO, Pilot said, “We have a tight knit
community — we hold events and potlucks
to keep people interested through the social
aspect.”
Lee Terry shared that the company is ethni-
cally diverse, and that could be one reason
that so many members of the same family
want to work there. They joke that their
company “has a bit of nepotism,” but said
that it is because of the family connection
that “families have a vested interest in the
company succeeding.”
Pilot said that they have four shifts at the
company and in some families, husbands and
wives are on the same shift and leave at the
same time to go home for dinner. For others,
spouses work different shifts and exchange
children in the parking lot.
The products and the future for
Cascade Gasket
The company manufactures rubber-based
seals, gaskets, clamp blocks, grommets, and
sponges. The company website states, “In
non-metal sheet stock cutting, (we are) able
to work with pliable gasket material like
urethane, neoprene, textiles, silicone, and
sponge rubber, as well as other non-metals
like chipboard medium density fiberboard
(MDF), and cork. We offer die cutting up to
24 inches in width or diameter and 70 inches
in length.” They can also mold products that
are 144 inches long and 48 inches wide.
Their clamp blocks are used to hold hydrau-
lic and other lines in the mechanical area of
the plane, “For example, there are upward of
1,500 clamp blocks in a 787,” said Pilot.
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NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS