Site operating leadership remains one of the most important jobs at ���׶���Ƶ Surface Technologies (VST) and is integral to our ability to meet customer expectations, develop a world class workforce and achieve our business goals.

We are pleased to welcome Justin Crumley as our new general manager for the Wichita, KANSAS operating location. In this role, Justin will lead the operating team, set priorities for business and have ownership of the Wichita annual operating plan.

The Wichita site has a strong legacy in the regional market, with a wide range of processing capability and longstanding customer relationships. He will be tasked with building a strong site leadership team and ensuring a collaborative focus on business growth, meeting financial targets, and deploying operational excellence.

Justin has extensive industry experience with over fifteen years of aerospace processing experience and ten years of leadership experience. He has a history of driving process improvements and utilizing lean manufacturing tools to ensure operating improvements. Justin is a process-oriented executive with a track record of developing high performing operating teams. He will be focused on building a culture of accountability, with a balanced approach to cost effective supply chain management, special processing, and logistics.

He has an undergraduate degree in Business Management and has earned an MBA from the Newman University with a concentration in Leadership. Justin has also achieved his Six Sigma black belt certification and has a lifelong commitment to operational excellence.

Please join me in welcoming Justin to the team and ensuring he has our complete support as we focus on the next chapter for the Wichita business!

Andy Brandenburg
Vice President Operations

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TC Specialties Inc. will be our primary distributor of paints and primers starting with our west coast and Wichita facilities. We expect a successful transition that could expand across more of our North America locations. VST is expanding our strategy to the east coast region with evaluations underway.

TC Specialties Inc. is a nationally respected leader in the distribution of Akzo Nobel Aerospace Coatings since 1979. Their high-performance products along with TC Specialties’ superior technical support and decades of reliability have set the standard for excellence in coatings that meet the needs of our military aerospace and defense customers.

���׶���Ƶ Vice President of Operations Andrew Brandenburg comments; “VST is excited to have formed this agreement with TC Specialties, a stellar aerospace coating company that provides high quality paint and primer. This is a great first step in consolidating our supply chain to improve service availability and turn time.”

TC Specialties President Gary Fujihara commented; “TC Specialties is looking forward to growing this partnership and expanding our ability to provide the same high levels of service and reliability that we have maintained with several of VST’s industry leading facilities for over 30 years.”

About TC Specialties, Inc

TC Specialties is a nationally respected leader in the distribution of aerospace and military paints, primers, and coatings. With a focus on providing technical expertise, excellent customer service, and maintaining a large inventory of in stock products, TC Specialties has established itself as a premier supplier in the aerospace industry since 1979.

���׶���Ƶ Surface Technologies

���׶���Ƶ Surface Technologies is the world’s largest independent provider of Aerospace product finishing services. With 12 locations and over 4,500 unique industry approvals, ���׶���Ƶ processes more than one million parts per month. In addition to being Nadcap accredited, all ���׶���Ƶ sites provide specialized metal processing and finishing services to a diversified set of fast-growing commercial aerospace, defense, and space/satellite markets. ���׶���Ƶ partners with its customers to deliver best-in-class quality, turn times, and full-service supply chain solutions.

Contact:

Julie Sims – Director Marketing and Communications

info@valencest.com

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WICHITA, KS, July 18, 2022 – ���׶���Ƶ Wichita (Formerly Chrome Plus International) recently received a number of new processing approvals to support the F-16 and F-22 military aircraft programs. These additions bring the total Process Code approvals at the KANSAS operating location to forty-nine unique capability approvals.

Obtaining these new approvals supports the ���׶���Ƶ strategy to increase regional capability, provide redundant capacity and supply chain risk mitigation across our North America locations. This further expands ���׶���Ƶ’s ability to support all sub-tier supplier partners in the Central United States from the VST Central Region locations in Wichita, KS and Grove, OK (Formerly Pride Plating).

When asked about the significance of these approvals, General Manager Marcus Wagoner commented, “���׶���Ƶ Wichita has worked hard to obtain these additional approvals and now has approvals for all Lockheed Martin programs. The team is excited to expand our support of the defense industry and to allow our customers to
have a one-stop shop to complete all their processing needs with best in class quality and lead times.”

���׶���Ƶ Surface Technologies is the largest independent provider of metal finishing to the commercial aviation, defense, space and medical market verticals, with OEM approved painting, plating and coating capabilities throughout the United States. ���׶���Ƶ is headquartered in Los Angeles, CALIFORNIA and is sponsored by equity
investors ATL Partners and BCI; the British Columbia Investment Management Company.

Addendum – New Approvals Obtained

Lockheed Martin F-16 approvals:

• (242B) FPS-1004 Fuel tank coating
• (160) NDTS-1500 / NDTS-1501 Hardness testing
• (161) NDTS-1500 / NDTS-1502 Conductivity testing
• (110B) NDTS-1101 Penetrant inspection
• (110C1) NDTS-1101 Prepenetrant Etch of Aluminum
• (110C2) NDTS-1101 Prepenetrant Etch of Titanium

Lockheed Martin F-22 approvals:

• (164) 5PTPCG09 Appendix A Hardness testing
• (165) 5PTPCG09 Appendix B Conductivity testing
• (166) 5PTPTL19 Hardness/Conductivity of Aluminum
• (112) 5PTPCL02 Penetrant inspection
• (146) 5PTPCG06 Penetrant inspection
• (146B1) 5PTPGG01 Prepenetrant etch of aluminum
• (146B5) 5PTPGL01 Prepenetrant etch of titanium
• (146B6) 5PTPGL03 Prepenetrant etch of aluminum

Boeing approval:

• MIL-DTL-5541 Type II Class 3 chem film

���׶���Ƶ Surface Technologies is the world’s largest independent provider of Aerospace product finishing services. With 12 locations and over 4,500 unique industry approvals, ���׶���Ƶ processes more than 1 million parts per month. In addition to being Nadcap accredited, all ���׶���Ƶ sites provide specialized metal processing and finishing services to a diversified set of fast-growing commercial aerospace, defense, and space/satellite markets. ���׶���Ƶ partners with its customers to deliver best-in-class quality, turn times, and full-service supply chain solutions.

About ATL Partners

Founded in 2014, ATL Partners is a premier sector-focused private equity firm that invests in aerospace, transportation and logistics companies. ATL brings deep sector expertise to its investment approach with ten investment professionals and seven Executive Board members who have decades of combined operating experience in each of ATL’s core sectors. For more information about ATL Partners, visit

About BCI

With C$199.6 billion of assets under management as of March 31, 2021, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) is one of Canada’s largest institutional investors. Based in Victoria, British Columbia, BCI is a long-term investor that invests across a range of asset classes: fixed income; public equities; private equity; infrastructure; renewable resources; real estate; and commercial mortgages. BCI’s clients include public sector pension plans, insurance, and special-purpose funds. BCI’s private equity program, with C$20.7 billion of assets under management, has a well-diversified portfolio comprised of direct and fund investments. The team brings industry expertise with more than 40 investment professionals investing across financial and business services, healthcare, industrials, consumer, and TMT sectors. For more information about BCI, please visit .

Contact

Julie Sims – Director Marketing and Communications, ���׶���Ƶ Surface Technologies

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���׶���Ƶ Wichita (Formerly Chrome Plus International) recently received a comprehensive list of processing approvals to support the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and all its variants. These approvals build off the existing C-130 Hercules approvals ���׶���Ƶ Wichita first received from Lockheed Martin back in June 2021 and bring the total unique Process Code approvals number to an impressive thirty-five.

When asked about the significance of these approvals, General Manager Marcus Wagoner stated,“���׶���Ƶ Wichita is excited to further our long history of supporting our military by gaining these important defense approvals through Lockheed Martin. The team has worked hard over the last year to expand our defense approvals to help our customers with fast lead times and best in class quality that they expect.”

Obtaining these new approvals broadens ���׶���Ƶ’s strategy to increase capacity, provide redundancy, and supply chain risk mitigation across North America. This further expands ���׶���Ƶ’s ability to support all Lockheed Martin programs in the Central United States from their Wichita, KS, and Grove, OK (Formerly Pride Plating) locations.

New Approvals Obtained

Founded in 1991, ���׶���Ƶ Wichita (Chrome Plus International, LLC.) is considered a world leader in aerospace finishing and is valued by its global customers due to its industry-leading capabilities and approvals covering the global aerospace market. ���׶���Ƶ Wichita services are available for aluminum, steel, titanium, and chrome materials.

is an ATL Partners and BCI portfolio company focused on surface treatment technologies, with over twelve processing locations across North America. ���׶���Ƶ is positioned as the largest independent provider of mission-critical NDT, chemical processing, painting, coating, and plating services to over 2000 customers. Over 1000 ���׶���Ƶ employees are deployed every day to ensure that customer expectations for responsiveness, quality, and product delivery are exceeded.

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• BAPS185-003 PEEN FORMING OF METAL PARTS
• BAPS185-002 SHOT PEENING OF METAL PARTS
• BAERD-GEN-018 ENGINEERING REQUIREMENTS FOR LABORATORIES field 4A for BATS3211 SURFACE ROUGHNESS, METHOD FOR MEASURING

With these new approvals in place, ���׶���Ƶ can continue our mission to provide turn-key processing solutions for our customers in the Southwest United States.

International travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, created a unique opportunity for the ���׶���Ƶ and Bombardier Teams to work closely together via video and teleconferences rather than the typical onsite audit. Close collaboration was required to achieve approval from Bombardier.

“The Paramount team worked with our Wichita facility, who already had Bombardier shot peen approvals, to help these approvals come to fruition. We are very excited to support key customers currently producing critical parts for the Bombardier Business Jet programs.”
– Juan Galvan, Production Manager

���׶���Ƶ Los Angeles has been established as a leading aerospace finishing company due to our extensive approval base, comprehensive service offering, and capability to finish parts up to 30 feet in length. ���׶���Ƶ Los Angeles proudly serves the commercial aerospace, business aviation, defense, and space industries out of its 100,000 square foot facilities. We maintain three process lines and recently completed a major renovation and have added large part titanium processing including sol-gel, titanium etch (pickle), and abrasive blast capability for parts up to 27 feet in length.

About ���׶���Ƶ Surface Technologies
���׶���Ƶ Surface Technologies is the world’s largest independent provider of Aerospace product finishing services. With 12 locations and over 4,500 unique industry approvals, ���׶���Ƶ processes more than 1 million parts per month. In addition to being Nadcap accredited, all ���׶���Ƶ sites provide specialized metal processing and finishing services to a diversified set of fast-growing commercial aerospace, defense, and space/satellite markets. ���׶���Ƶ partners with its customers to deliver best-in-class quality, turn times, and full-service supply chain solutions.

The post ���׶���Ƶ Los Angeles, Paramount Operations Lands Bombardier Aerospace Approvals appeared first on ���׶���Ƶ Surface Technologies.

Equipment features:

• 30’ x 5’ x 3.5’ work envelope
• Robotic control equipped with four separate peening nozzles
• Variable controlled PCL’s to decrease intensity to prevent warpage
• Passthrough setup allows for a quick rack and runs part introduction system

Approvals:

• BAC5730
• AIPS/AIPI 02-02-004
• BAPS 185-002
• AMS 2430
• GAMPS 2102

“We are constantly striving to improve our capabilities for our customer base.
This equipment increases the ability to reduce delays and cost resulting from transit by offering all required processes in a single facility.”
– Freddy Hutt, Facility Manager

Founded in 1991, ���׶���Ƶ Wichita (Chrome Plus International, LLC.) is considered a world leader in aerospace finishing and is valued by its global customers due to its industry leading capabilities and approvals covering the global aerospace market. ���׶���Ƶ Wichita services are available for aluminum, steel, titanium and chrome materials. In addition to our metal finishing services, ���׶���Ƶ also offers supply chain management, chrome coating deposition, differential deposition, mismatched or worn surface repair, CNC cylindrical grinding, centerless grinding infeed and thru feed and vertical horizontal honing.

About ���׶���Ƶ Surface Technologies
���׶���Ƶ Surface Technologies is the world’s largest independent provider of Aerospace product finishing services. With 11 locations and over 2,500 unique industry approvals, ���׶���Ƶ processes more than 1 million parts per month. In addition to being Nadcap accredited, all ���׶���Ƶ sites provide specialized metal processing and finishing services to a diversified set of fast-growing commercial aerospace, defense, and space/satellite markets. ���׶���Ƶ partners with its customers to deliver best-in-class quality, turn times, and full-service supply chain solutions.

The post ���׶���Ƶ Wichita Operations Increases Shot Peen Capabilities appeared first on ���׶���Ƶ Surface Technologies.

Obtaining these new approvals also furthers ���׶���Ƶ’s strategy to provide regional redundancy and supply chain risk mitigation across both their Wichita, KS, and Grove, OK facilities. ���׶���Ƶ can now support all Central US C-130 suppliers at either location.

In addition to these C-130 approvals, ���׶���Ƶ Wichita is also working diligently on expanding its Lockheed Martin approvals for the F-35 and F-16 fighter jet programs. These will again expand ���׶���Ƶ’s ability to support all Lockheed Martin programs in the Central Region.

New Approvals Obtained:

• MIL-STD-6866/ASTM-E-1417 Penetrant Inspection
• STP53-201/LCP72-1068 Penetrant Inspection
• Hardness/Conductivity Inspec. Wrought Alum Alloy
• ASTM E 18 Hardness Testing Rockwell Method
• ASTM E 1004 Conductivity of Aluminum
• MIL-A-8625, Type 1 and Type 1B Chromic Acid Anodize
• MIL-A-8625 Type II Sulfuric Acid Anodize
• MIL-A-8625, Type III Hard Anodize
• STP 58-209 Chromic Acid Anodize
• STP 58-208 Sulfuric Acid Anodize
• STP 58-206 Hard Anodize
• AMS-C-5541/MIL-DTL-5541, Type I, Class 1A, and Class 3 Chem Film
• STP 58-405 Chem Film
• MIL-C-27725/AMS-C-27725 Fuel Tank Coating
• STP 59-505 Fuel Tank Coating
• G604 Application of Finish for C130 Hardware MIL-L-46010 / MIL-PRF-46010 Solid Film Lubricant STP 62-005 Solid Film Lubricant
• AMS 2430 Shot Peening
• STP51-501 Shot Peening
• STP57-301 Aluminum Alloys-Alkaline/Acid Metal Removal Methods
• STP57-401 Titanium Alloys-Alkaline/Acid Metal Removal Methods

“���׶���Ƶ is happy to transition existing C-130 work from our Grove, OK site to Wichita, KS in an effort to serve our customers with faster lead times and fewer travel costs.”
– Randy Lay, General Manager

Founded in 1991, ���׶���Ƶ Wichita (Chrome Plus International, LLC.) is considered a world leader in aerospace finishing and is valued by its global customers due to its industry-leading capabilities and approvals covering the global aerospace market. ���׶���Ƶ Wichita services are available for aluminum, steel, titanium, and chrome materials. In addition to our metal finishing services, ���׶���Ƶ also offers supply chain management, chrome coating deposition, differential deposition, mismatched or worn surface repair, CNC cylindrical grinding, centerless grinding infeed, and thru feed and vertical horizontal honing.

About ���׶���Ƶ Surface Technologies
���׶���Ƶ Surface Technologies is the world’s largest independent provider of Aerospace product finishing services. With 12 locations and over 4,500 unique industry approvals, ���׶���Ƶ processes more than 1 million parts per month. In addition to being Nadcap accredited, all ���׶���Ƶ sites provide specialized metal processing and finishing services to a diversified set of fast-growing commercial aerospace, defense, and space/satellite markets. ���׶���Ƶ partners with its customers to deliver best-in-class quality, turn times, and full-service supply chain solutions.

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Etch (Pre-penetrant and Temper / Nital)
NDT (Penetrant and Magnetic Particle Inspection)
Conversion coating (Aluminum)
Anodize (Type I, IB, II and III)
Passivation
Plating (Cadmium, Chrome and Electroless Nickel)
Stress relieve bake
Shot Peen
Paint and spray coatings

Collins/UTAS is the landing gear design authority for many critical aerospace and defense OEMs such as Airbus, Boeing, Gulfstream, and Lockheed Martin. With these new approvals in Wichita, ���׶���Ƶ continues to expand its offerings to its landing gear customers with a single-source solution in mind.

Teresa Brown, Sales Account Manager, stated, “Obtaining these important Collins approvals strengthens ���׶���Ƶ Wichita’s capabilities in the landing gear systems market. We look forward to supporting Collins with direct special processing services as well as through their sub-tier supplier networks.”

���׶���Ƶ Wichita, founded in 1991 as Chrome Plus International, is considered a world leader in aerospace finishing and is valued by its global customers due to its industry-leading capabilities and approvals covering the global aerospace market. In addition to a wide variety of surface finishing services, ���׶���Ƶ Wichita offers vendor managed inventory (VMI), supply chain management, chrome coating deposition, differential deposition, mismatched or worn surface repair, CNC cylindrical grinding, centerless grinding infeed, and thru feed and vertical horizontal honing.

���׶���Ƶ Surface Technologies – Wichita
3939 W. 29th St. South
Wichita, KS 67217
Phone: 316.944.3600
Email: quotes.wichita@���׶���ƵST.com

About ���׶���Ƶ Surface Technologies
���׶���Ƶ Surface Technologies is the world’s largest independent provider of Aerospace product finishing services. With 12 locations and over 4,500 unique industry approvals, ���׶���Ƶ processes more than 1 million parts per month. In addition to being Nadcap accredited, all ���׶���Ƶ sites provide specialized metal processing and finishing services to a diversified set of fast-growing commercial aerospace, defense, and space/satellite markets. ���׶���Ƶ partners with its customers to deliver best-in-class quality, turn times, and full-service supply chain solutions.

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Based on the Wichita facility’s record setting growth rates achieved over the past 12 months, ���׶���Ƶ is making some significant changes to increase capacity, reduce its already industry leading turnaround times and to drive significant improvement in cost productivity.

As a part of facility expansion, ���׶���Ƶ is adding an entirely new processing line with the capability to process parts up to 14 feet in length and a new and significantly larger process water generation and recovery system. Additionally, the air handling systems are being upgraded so each building maintains positive pressure and enhanced environmental controls that ensure market leading quality rates are maintained while volumes increase.

In addition to the facility expansion and increased capacity, ���׶���Ƶ continues to gain leverage from its focus on Lean Manufacturing.  Improvements include dedicated work cells for the highest volume programs, re-designed digital masking systems with enhanced lighting, redesigned storage bins to free up floor space and a completely reconfigured NDT operation that increased capacity by 300%.

Tracy Glende, ���׶���Ƶ Chief Executive Officer, commented, “These additional investments once again demonstrate ���׶���Ƶ’s complete commitment to the Aerospace and Defense Supply Chain.  Along with these additional capital investments, we continue to gain new approvals and drive cost productivity from our Lean Initiatives to ensure we remain cost competitive while maintaining our industry leading quality and delivery performance.”

About ���׶���Ƶ Surface Technologies

is the world’s largest independent provider of Aerospace and Defense product finishing services. With 11 locations, 700,000+ sq. ft. of manufacturing space, and over 2,500 unique industry approvals, ���׶���Ƶ processes more than 16 million parts per year. In addition to being Nadcap accredited, all ���׶���Ƶ sites provide specialized metal processing and product finishing services to a diversified set of fast-growing commercial aerospace, defense, and space/satellite markets.

About Trive Capital

Trive Capital is a Dallas, Texas-based private equity firm investing in equity and debt securities with approximately $2 Billion in capital under management. Trive focuses on investing in what it sees as strategically viable middle-market companies with the potential for transformational upside through operational improvement.

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