The Maintenance, Repair and Overall for Aircraft convention was held the third week of April in Orlando Florida. This year’s event not only had applications for commercial aircraft, but military opportunities were represented, as well. This is one of the largest air shows in the world with well over 500 exhibitors. Applications for interior, cabin, landing gear, engine and ground support were just some of the exhibits on display.

The AeroDef Manufacturing 2017 Conference offered a number of diverse technical sessions to choose from, as well as informative exhibits. The exhibits offered a practical look at the applications encountered in the military aerospace environment. This event was held in March in Fort Worth, Texas.

Our national tradeshow, celebrating its 98^th year, will be in Las Vegas, NV, June 6-8^th. We believe it is important to support our industry and stay current with the latest technology. If you have a current program or you are looking at a new finishing application please contact us directly to see if we can be of assistance.

Policies continue to change and impact our industry, and attending the Washington Forum in DC is one of the ways we stay informed on current and future issues. During two days of presentations many topics were addressed including the regulatory, legislative and legal challenges ahead for surface finishers. Once again being present at this event proved to be time well spent.

Attending one of largest conferences held in the United States can be a bit overwhelming. A group from Wolkerstorfer Company attended the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas. This conference covers everything you can imagine that would involve oil production. As you would expect, this covers a lot of ground, as did the exhibits which spanned over 700,000 square feet of space, 2,500 exhibitors and 30+ countries represented. We are always learning and this conference offered a true idea of scale of this worldwide industry.

Members of the Wolkerstorfer team attended the Subsea Tieback Conference in San Antonio, Texas this past March. So you may ask what exactly is a Subsea Tieback? It is a link between a satellite field and an existing production oil well on the ocean’s floor. The advantage of this is that it is now feasible to go after marginal wells without all the major capital requirements of a full production well. We continue to work closely with our customers, to meet the rigid coating demands of NACE for this challenging industry.

We are pleased to announce our re-approval by Gulfstream Aerospace for our Quality Systems, Conversion Coatings and Fluorescent Penetrant Inspection. Due to demand, we are now also approved to do Sulfuric Acid Anodize Type II, Dry Film Lubricants and Passivation. For a complete listing of our Gulfstream Approvals please review the attached letter. (We no longer offer chromic acid anodize coatings.) 

Already known as a premiere testing and metal finishing company to the aerospace and military industries, we now are approved and certified for subsea work. A local company that had specific requirements for the coating of massive components for petro-chemical market, approached us to see if there would be some interest. With some of the largest metal finishing equipment in the Midwest, and the attention for detail required in aerospace, we were a perfect match for this demanding industry. If you have finishing needs for subsea applications please feel free to contact our Sales department.

We have received a number of requests for us to pursue Nadcap accreditation for Paint and Stainless Steel Passivation. In an effort to continue to support our current and hopefully our new client base this is now under management review. If you have an interest in seeing us expand our current offerings in these or other areas please contact our Sales department at 651-636-0720.

As part of our ongoing continuing education, we are sending two of our managers to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in October for the Annual PRI Nadcap Meeting. This four day event covers all the latest audit procedures and hot topics relating to the current military and federal specifications. It is Wolkerstorfer Company’s commitment to our Nadcap accreditation and the firm belief that we follow all protocol when testing and finishing our customer’s parts.