When John Lindstedt entered the Navy several decades ago, he was selected for the Nuclear Propulsion Program in support of the submarine program.
That meant classes 8 hours a day straight for six months, with multiple exams in between to weed out those who weren’t cut out for the stringent engineering requirements.
“I’m told it’s the equivalent of a master’s degree in seven months,” says Lindstedt, who left the Navy in 1974 to return to Milwaukee to work for his father at what was then known as Artistic Plating.
Renamed Advanced Plating Technologies, Lindstedt is retired and has his two sons running the operations: Matt is President of the company, and James is Vice President and Engineering Manager.
“All my sons are military veterans, which I am very proud of,” says Lindstedt says, who has logged over 50 years in the finishing industry, which certainly qualifies him as an industry “Legend.”
Advocacy of the Metal Finishing Industry
Aside from running Advanced Plating Technologies, Lindstedt’s career also saw him very committed to the advocacy of the metal finishing industry through the Government Action committee within the NASF. He has actively engaged government at local, state, and federal levels and has advocated for best practices consistent with sound analytical techniques.
Lindstedt has served on the NASF Government Relations committee for over 30 years. His company has won numerous awards, including the U.S. EPA Environmental Achievement Award, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District High Honor Roll, and the John C. Brogan Award for Outstanding Environmental Achievement from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
With Matt and James’ help, Lindstedt has turned Advanced Plating Technologies into one of the premiere finishing operations in North America, one that has pivoted to not only helping customers finish their parts but also one that now helps those same customers better engineer the parts so they will last longer.
“The most satisfying part is that some of our existing customers now, they’ll call us and say, ‘what do you think? Should we use this metal? Or should we use this finish?’” Lindstedt says. “It’s been very successful, and Matt has done a nice job looking for engineering problems. And James — who runs our engineering department — does a lot of work when we get a new part or a prototype. We will figure out how we think we want to finish it, and we’ll run it that way.”
