Images: Behind the Scenes at Work Area Protection in St. Charles
Eleuterio Lopez puts on gloves to pull the hot, freshly made cones off the conveyor.
Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
Labels are painted on the white layer of cones and then the orange goes on over the top to keep people from stealing them and using a solvent to remove the names.
Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
Work Area Protection Corp. in St. Charles sells over 1.6 million cones a year. Their warehouse holds about 60,000 at a time and that inventory turns over every couple of weeks.
Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
Vice presidents Mike Linkimer, left, and Doug Comstock of Work Area Protection Corp. in St. Charles.
Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
A hot flame burns off excess solvents and materials on a construction barrel.
Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
Victor Mendoza tosses a barrel onto a stack after wrapping it in reflective tape.
Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
Drips of orange are everywhere at Work Area Protection Corp. in St. Charles. Workers used to cut the remaining nubs off but eliminated that step years ago and now they stay on.
Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
Antonio Ortiz has worked at Work Area Protection Corp. in St. Charles for 26 years. The company is an international leader in traffic control and work zone safety devices. The currently ship their products to companies and governments agencies in North, Central and South America and Europe.
Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
Barrels are labeled for a customer with a stencil at Work Area Protection Corp. in St. Charles Wednesday.
Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
Production is anything but slow at Work Area Protection Corp. in St. Charles. The produce and sell over 1.6 million cones a year.
Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
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