Northwest Aerospace News June | July 2019 Issue No. 9 | Page 43

UP AND COMING
For Roberts, the journey that is
Apex Anodizing began while he was
working at a finishing shop located
in Tualatin, Oregon. It provided
anodizing services among many other
surface treatments, but Roberts felt
that the company was not investing
sufficient time or effort into the
process to deliver quality results.
“Another guy and I left, and after
that they actually shut down their
anodizing line,” he said. “It was
clear to us that there was a need for
anodizing services in the Portland
area.”
To meet that need, Roberts set up a
2,000-square-foot shop in southeast
Portland and, along with three
employees, he began treating parts for
the high-tech industry.
“Back then, we did a lot of work for
companies like Tektronix and ESI —
mounting brackets, chassis and sheet
metal casings for computers,” he said.
“From there, we branched out into the
sporting goods industry, treating parts
for bows and firearms.”
With his work on guns focused
almost exclusively for the military
and defense sectors, Roberts decided
to move forward with getting a
federal firearms license, allowing
Apex Anodizing to treat the parts
of weapons that actually discharge
bullets.
“That meant we had to start tracking
serial numbers and record when each
individual component arrived at our
facility and when we shipped it out,”
he said. “It was a lot of paperwork that
we never had to do before.”
The company continued to grow along
with its reputation for doing quality
work. Apex moved into the automotive
industry working with Freightliner, as
well as treating instruments used in
medical and dental procedures.
JUNE | JULY 2019 ISSUE NO. 9
43