Northwest Aerospace News June | July 2019 Issue No. 9 | Page 44

“I
n 2001, we moved to a
12,000-square-foot location; at the time, it
seemed huge to us,” said Roberts.
Eight years later, Roberts got his first call
to do work in the aviation industry. A
company based in Arlington, Washington,
discovered that Apex offered multiple
surface treatments all under one roof.
“They were looking for someone who
could do bright dip, shot peening and sand
blasting, to come up with a nice finish for
these super high-quality first-class suites
for Lufthansa,” Roberts recalled. “We did
some samples and the guy said to me, ‘If
we can make this work, it’s going to be
huge.’”
He flew to Miami to join the pitch to
the German airline, bringing along his
samples. Lufthansa was impressed, but
wanted to know if Apex could support the
volume of work that was required to meet
its production schedule.
“Of course, I always say ‘Yes’
— and then I figure out a way
to do it,” Roberts laughed.
“At that point, we were still
pretty small — maybe 15 or
20 employees.”
THE HIGH LIFE
With the deal tentatively approved, it was
time for Apex and its partner in Arlington
to prove that they could actually deliver
the product.
“Unfortunately, they were really late in
getting us that first article,” said Olson.
“We got the parts here on Friday
afternoon, and we needed to present
them to Lufthansa in Tucson, Arizona, on
Monday.”
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NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS
With the shop working through the weekend to treat the parts, Roberts went
shopping for a gun case.
“They wanted the parts delivered by hand,” he said. “So I went out and got
this big, hard-sided case with lots of padding. I flew out to Arizona on Sunday
night and we had our meeting on Monday morning.”
Lufthansa loved the look and feel of the finished parts and inked the deal,
officially inaugurating Apex Anodizing as an aerospace supplier.