Northwest Aerospace News February | March 2018 Issue No. 1 | Page 44

Paints and primers are another specialty at Novation . With twenty years of experience in commercial and military paints and primers , their paint and powder coat facility team has substantial experience and knowledge to provide customers with the paint finishing they need . Novation ’ s experience includes shooting both water and solvent-based material onto metal , plastic and composite substrates . They also offer a five-stage dip process cleaning that is highly effective on parts that spray wash lines struggle to clean . For more than fifteen years , Novation ’ s powder coat facility has offered both small and high production runs and has become very efficient at completing high quality work quickly for customers .

Novation has always emphasized quality assurance and has both a NADCAP certified chemical lab and environmental testing lab with humidity and salt spray testing capabilities . This allows for in-house solution testing and process compliance verification . In their non-destructive testing facility , Novation currently performs florescent penetrant inspection on non-ferrous substrates and is looking to expand their capabilities to include hard metals , as demand dictates . They currently hold several aerospace OEM certifications and NADCAP certification for this process . Approved pre-cleaning steps before NDT processing are also supported .
With these capabilities , Novation completes a wide variety of finishing projects for aerospace manufacturers . Each customer brings interesting work and new challenges that Novation ’ s team is eager to solve .
Le Friec looks at the success he and his team have had so far , and he ’ s optimistic about the direction of Novation and the aerospace industry , too . It ’ s made him proud of the entire Novation team and the dedication they bring to their work .

Manufacturing for Tomorrow

With globalization putting pressure on many American aerospace manufacturers , it would be easy for some companies to hold a pessimistic outlook . Instead , Le Friec is optimistic about both US manufacturing and Novation ’ s future role in the industry .
“ Globalization is definitely putting additional demands on US manufacturers and forcing us all to look internally for improved efficiencies . I do not look at this situation with doom and gloom . We still have the best suppliers in the world right here , if we are provided the environment to compete .”
Novation ’ s success so far suggests that Le Friec is still committed to competing — and thriving — in that environment .
“ I ’ m truly proud of our employees .

Just being here for 27 years is something I ’ m very proud of .”

- Fred Le Friec
44 NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS