Fred Le Friec was a mechanical engineer working in the Spokane, Washington area in the 1990s building dot matrix printers when he realized the area was void of enough finishing services to handle the work he needed to be done.
Fred Le FriecA person with a true entrepreneurial spirit, Le Friec decided to launch his own finishing facility. With one employee, he began building a new finishing facility and designing an overhead crane system to offer chem film and anodizing. And with that, Novation was launched that provided anodizing, precious metal plating, liquid and powder coating, non-destructive testing, and quality assurance tests.
Some 30 years — and four additions to the now 35,000-square-foot plant —Novation now employees over 90 people and offers a wide array of both commercial and Nadcap finishing services.
Le Friec is the company president, and his son, Andy, is chief financial officer. Another son, Spencer, is also involved in running the company.
“As a family-owned business, we treat our employees like family,” Fred says. “That culture has created employees dedicated to providing high-quality work with exceptional communication and customer service, as well as honesty and integrity with every transaction.”
From Prototypes Runs To High-Volume Production
Novation handles everything from small prototype runs to high-volume production. The shop’s process lines operate around the clock, seven days a week, to ensure they can provide the kind of turn-around their customers require.
The company serves the aerospace, defense, semi-conductor, firearms, and communications industries, among others.
Since their formation in 1990, Andy Le Friec says Novation has continued to add process capabilities that now include hard anodize, multi-color anodize, brite dip anodize, and industry-specific anodize processes such as chromic acid anodize and boric-sulfuric anodize.
“We have been at the forefront of ROHS compliant processes with the addition of ROHS chemical conversion coatings to our standard chemical-conversion processes,” he says. “Our anodize and chromate conversion processes are certified to meet military specifications, and are also approved to many OEM aerospace certifications.”
Numerous Finishing Processes
Spencer and Andy Le FriecsNovation’s plating process capabilities include zinc, nickel, brite tin, black oxide, phosphating along with electropolish, chemical brite dip, and passivation on stainless steel alloys. Their capabilities in nickel plating include brite nickel, sulfamate nickel, and multiple processes for electroless nickel. The shop recently added a barrel zinc line, as well as rack plating capability for most processes.
“We are always exploring technologies and growth opportunities,” Fred says. “We are looking to add an additional 3,500 square feet to our existing facility so we can go from two to four paint booths, and triple the size of our oven.”
The Le Friecs say that Novation’s gold and silver plating capabilities have been meeting the needs of both industrial and decorative applications for over 10 years, and they are able to provide precious metal plating on many sub-straights including aluminum and highly alloyed material such as Inconel.
Novation added paint and powder coat processes about 20 ago to apply all varieties of commercial and military paints and primers. Their five-stage dip process for cleaning has proven effective on many parts where spray wash lines are not. To further enhance their coating capability, Novation has a complete silkscreen operation that encompasses artwork generation to completed products.
The facility also offers fluorescent penetrant non-destructive testing that is Nadcap certified, and Novation holds several aerospace OEM certifications which include approved pre-cleaning steps prior to the NDT processing. In addition, the shop incorporates and full-service lab staffed with technicians that are certified by Nadcap to AC 7004.
The main suppliers for the shop are Sherwin-Williams, Cascade Columbia, and Cardinal.
Feeling The Supply Chain Pride
Andy Le Friec points to the recent Space X in May that launched astronauts into space for the first time as a symbol of pride for all of those in the aerospace finishing industry.
“It’s pretty cool to consider your work going to outer space, but the gravity of the job really hits home when they start strapping humans to those rockets,” he says. “When the launch was successful, I think everyone in the supply chain felt a lot of pride.”
Spencer says the future of their company will remain precision-machined goods that require multiple processes and precision masking.
“We will continue to explore new processes to meet customer demands and environmental concerns,” he says.
The Le Friecs all agree that, at the end of the day, their success is because of the people they have working for them, and the management team that works well with its staff.
“We have an exceptional management team that provides great customer interface and we have an excellent masking team,” Andy says. “Their commitment to customer satisfaction has created the reputation Novation uses to attract and maintain customers.”
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