Weed Out Counterfeits From Your Supply Chain.

We've heard so much about counterfeit components -- rejects, refurbs, and fake components sold as bona-fide first-quality parts --  it's almost as if the matter has become old news. It's difficult to believe that certain companies would go to such effort to do wrong, and continue to do wrong, as if there's no risk to getting caught.

Sprinkling, blacktopping, remarking. And what if a counterfeiters does get caught?  Names change to protect the guilty, and there's always a new customer looking for a bargain or an extra-fast delivery -- the gray market.

Years ago, it was intellectual property everyone was concerned about -- ramp up production (and reduce costs) by outsourcing offshore, enjoy the benefits for a brief time, and then marvel at the sudden appearance of look-alikes and copies -- IP down the river. These days, IP theft barely causes a stir compared to the huge problem of counterfeiting.

Perhaps you remember -- back  in 2011/2012 we learned about the U.S. Senate's finding that counterfeit electronic parts were installed or delivered to the U.S. military for several weapons systems, including the Army's Theatre High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system, the Air Force's C-17 airplane and the Marine Corps' CH-46 helicopter.

Or, a bit further back, the FBI effort called "Operation Cisco Raider," which exposed the purchase of fake Cisco routers, switches, and cards by the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps., the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, and even the

FBI itself.

But counterfeiting has come long way since then. It's even bigger business now and growing, as indicated by the hi-tech lengths counterfeiters go to change and disguise their wares to sneak under X-ray inspection and other testing techniques.

And that's the true cost of counterfeiting -- the millions of dollars spent on policing and detection.

All of the companies in the ETI family are responsible manufacturers. We investigate the sources of our materials and QC the goods we receive from them. We manufacture in best faith -- to customer expectations -- without cutting corners or playing games. We're honest. IP is safe with us. We manufacture in the U.S. and also in Costa Rico to save costs near-offshore where we can. None of our scrap ends up in China to be recapped, blacktopped, remarked or resold.

We manage our supply chain very tightly, and make it easier for our customers to reliably manage theirs.