Category Archive: Employee News

Sherex’s Jake Glaser Named to the NFDA Board of Directors

Jake Glaser

In 2014, Jake Glaser was starting his career in the fastener industry. Eight years later, he’ll be relied upon for his guidance and leadership on the board of one of the fastener industry’s main associations.

Jake Glaser, Regional Sales Manager for Sherex Fastening Solutions, has been named to the Board of Directors for the National Fastener Distributors Association (NFDA), the industry’s leading non-profit trade association serving the North American fastener industry.

Jake, who began his career in the fastener industry with Sherex in 2014 as a Customer Service Representative, has continued to climb the ladder in the Fastener Industry. He eventually moved from an inside sales role to a Technical Sales Representative position, to working his way toward an outside Regional Sales Manager role with responsibilities for developing the West Coast territory and key national/international accounts. His position of helping Sherex’s customers develop fastening solutions and provide in depth technical support is a role he continues in today.

“It’s a huge point of pride to be recognized and nominated for the board,” said Jake, 32, who resides in Colorado. “It’s very validating for the work that I have done and continue to do, and I am very excited for this next chapter supporting our industry family.”

In 2019, Jake was elected as the President of the Young Fasteners Professionals (YFP), a group that provides educational and networking opportunities for younger professionals desiring professional growth. Jake is hoping to continue to push developing the industry’s next leaders during his 3-year commitment to the NFDA Board.

“I’m very excited to preach the good word of the fastener industry, and to focus on development opportunities amongst our industry peers, both personally and professionally,” Jake said. “I love working as a mentor and connecting with folks. I love helping people, and it means so much to me to know I am able to support those who rely on me to get the job done.”

Sherex President Adam Pratt was on the NFDA board from 2016-2018 and the associate chair of the board in 2017 and 2018, so he knows first hand the board’s importance. Mr. Pratt said he’s very proud of Jake and the time he’s put into not only his job with Sherex, but his effort at YFP, and being part of the Pac-West Fastener Association.

“This is a great opportunity for Jake and I’m really proud of him,” Adam said. “He’s been an outstanding ambassador for Sherex and the fastener industry. I’m happy Jake’s on our team and he will learn a lot being on the NFDA board.”

Jake will be formally recognized at the Annual NFDA Meeting, June 21-23 in Minneapolis.

Sherex Fastening Solutions Year in Review — 2021

From all of us at Sherex, we want to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

A strong second half of 2020 turned into a very fine 2021 for Sherex. While an increase in sales and demand had our machines in Akron, Ohio, and Taiwan humming, it wasn’t without some turbulence. Shipping costs, material increases, and currency exchange rates were a big challenge for Sherex this year. We are continuously monitoring shipping costs and delays at Western ports and are doing everything we can to deliver your product on time if coming from overseas (even if that means having Santa help out as shown in the Christmas Card).

Let’s take a look at other musings from Sherex in 2021.

Thousands of 3D Rivet Nut Models on Sherex.com

Earlier this year, thousands more of our Rivet Nut models become available in downloadable 3D format. From our round body CAL, CAK, CA, CPB to our full hex line of FHK, FHL, and half hex CAH Series, over 50 downloadable files available, including CAD and SOLIDWORKS files are available. You can even download from specific thread size and material thickness to insert the model into your engineering models. Very cool feature!

3D Model Videos – RIV-FLOAT®

Checkout this sweet 3D Model video of RIV-FLOAT in action. You can see the floating nut inside the rivet nut, which allows some play while putting the through bolt through the RIV-FLOAT. This feature makes it incredibly useful for operators and installers on assembly lines to quickly fasten products. RIV-FLOAT is used in a number of industries including automotive and aerospace. Looks for more of these videos in 2022.

Fasteners for EV

Over the next year, Sherex will showcase use cases for different industries and applications that use our products. Sherex is a fastener leader in the EV industry and has products on some of the most popular EV models in the world. We supply millions of fasteners to the EV market and our products are critical for light-weighting and safely discharging electrical current from the vehicle. We’re continuously innovating for EV automakers and we see that being an even more important part of our business in the future.

Fasteners In Electric VehiclesWhat’s to come in 2022

More product innovations! We are scheduled for a product launch mid-way through the year and will be showcasing more of our Process Monitoring Tools, which helps to ensure a perfect installation of rivet nuts and fasteners. We will be incorporating more of our global offices too, including our locations in the UK, Poland, and Mexico.

Have a great holiday season and bring on 2022!

Sherex Warehouse Manager Training for World Record Hockey Game

It’s like training for a marathon, on ice skates.

That’s what our warehouse manager Justen Ehrig will be doing over the next seven months. Justen is a competitor in the 11 Day Power Play, an 11-day long hockey game that takes place in November to benefit local charities and cancer research in the Buffalo-area. This year, the event will be trying to break the Guinness World Record for the longest hockey game, which currently sits at 252-hours long.

This will be Justen’s second time trying to break the World’s Longest Hockey game.

Justen will be playing approximately 100 hours of hockey in just 11 days, putting in around 20, 4-hour shifts as goalie and skater. At the same time he’s training for this event, Justen will be hoping to raise $20,000 to help the event reach its goal of $1,000,000. As of April 1, he’s already over $9,000.

Justen has played in this event since the event began in 2017, playing as an ode to his mother. Justen’s mother, Sherrie, was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in 2016 and passed away in December 2017 after Justen played in the inaugural event. Sherrie watched Justen play all 11-days when he participated in the event in 2017.

“I was driving to work one day and heard about it on the radio promoting the event, and I signed up immediately,” Justen said. “That was my way of wanting to fight for her and everybody else in our community.”

Training for this game is intense. Justen said his team is currently being trained by Excelsior Orthopedics, whose certified Athletic Trainers often train professional and Olympic athletes.

With the event seven months away, overnight skates, running, dieting, and even sleep training has already begun. After all, Justen will be sleeping, eating, and spending all 11 days of this event at the hockey rink. There’s no going home to refresh. Over 250 straight hours either at the hockey rink or in a locker room acting as a makeshift dormitory, waiting until your shift gets called every eight hours or so.

“You play hockey more than you sleep,” Justen said. “It’s quite the physical gauntlet, but it is really just as much a mental battle as well.”

Justen has raised upwards of $40,000 since 2017 while participating in this event. To donate to Justen’s fundraising efforts, click here.

More to come as we periodically check in on Justen during his journey to participate in the 11-Day Power Play!