Los Angeles-based Andrews Powder Coating Inc. is about as far west as you can go in the U.S., but some of their biggest customers sit along the Atlantic Coast.

Sandee Andrews“We are starting to see a lot of product come in from the East because of our architectural and military certifications,” says Sandee Andrews, Co-Owner, Chief Financial Officer, and Strategic Director of Operations at the facility. 

And when a shop has as many approvals and certifications as APC does, customers are sure to find them, even if they are 2,000 or more miles away.

Approvals and Certifications Key to Growth

At last count, APC held the following approvals and certifications:

• AS9100 | ISO 9001, recertified annually. Entering their sixthyear doing Tier 1 space projects with prime contractors, and to their knowledge, are the only powder coating operation in the nation certified for space flight. 
• Chemical Agent Resistant Coatings (CARC) approved for five years. APC uses powder for applications such as MIL PRF 32348 and has 18 powder coatings approved for all types and classes.
• Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) approvals for MIL PRF 24712, which includes 46 powder coatings approved for all types and classes.
• Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) approvals for WSD-C-0181A with approved products
• Mil-Spec and Qualified Products List (QPL) coatings certified to actual QPL products.
• AAMA 2605 Architectural Finishes has been certified for eight years and has to be recertified annually.
• FDA-compliant coatings are used in medical and food safety industries.

While none of the approvals and certifications are easy to come by — or cheap, for that matter — Andrews says the company decided a long time ago to set itself apart from other coaters, especially in the Los Angeles area.

“It started to happen when we were still in our first building in the San Fernando Valley,” she says. “It was filled with powder coaters almost on every corner. They were everywhere.”

Finding a Better Way to Run a Powder Coating Operation

Andrews says they saw customers go from finisher to finisher to take nickels off of part prices, often leading to bidding wars between shops and a loss of much-needed income. That’s when she and Scott Andrews, APC’s President and CEO, decided they had seen enough.

“We knew there had to be a better way,” she says. “We wanted to set ourselves apart, and that's what started us to get focused on the certifications. Back then, the focus was on motorcycle and car parts and doing some commercial work on the side, and we just decided that we would never make it in the finishing business if we continued to go down that road. We didn't want to fight for nickels anymore.”

Andrews says they wanted to set themselves apart from other coating operations by going after approvals and certifications, thus making the barrier to entry as a competitor difficult.

“We wanted to be who we are and where we are today and have people working with us who want careers here,” she says. “Our ultimate goal was to allow people to spend their life working here and be very fulfilling with what we produce.”

The company was founded in 1980 in what Andrews calls a “little tiny rat shack” of an industrial building of about 1,700 square feet in Chatsworth in Los Angeles. They soon took over an adjacent building and a third. When they realized around 2002 that they needed to find an even bigger space for APC, they also needed expert help in the next steps to grow their business.

“We had a consulting company come in and offered to guide us along the way, and I accepted their help,” she says. “They were here every Monday at 6:00 a.m. to train me to run the company. They encouraged us to grow, and they encouraged us to move.”

Labor Savings Helps in Moving to Larger Facility

APC has AAMA 2605 Architectural Finishes and has been certified for eight years, which has to be recertified annually.They moved to a bigger building after 28 years in the same location. That, of course, came with its own issues, including packing and moving. With more space came more equipment, more manpower, and more costs.

“Of course, we were very nervous,” Andrews says. “Moving is very expensive, but within 90 days of moving, the savings in labor alone paid for the move. Instead of people walking from unit to unit to get their jobs done, we were all under one roof. It worked so well that I wondered why we didn't move before.”

But as their business continued to grow — and their approvals and certifications grew— the new building they thought would be perfect showed its wear and size limitations. They were going after AAMA 2605 approval, and to be certified by the powder manufacturers, they had to bring all of their pretreatment in-house.

That meant they had to start looking for more space in 2018 that could fit their existing equipment and operations and give them room to grow in the future. In the first three years of their AAMA 2605 certification, they were permitted to use an outside vendor for pretreatment, but APC wasn’t excited about it. That’s when they moved into a newer 13,000-square-foot facility and installed new lines and systems to help them grow their aluminum extrusion business.

“In order to retain certification, we had to have all of the control under our company,” Andrews says. “So we made the jump, and it was a huge jump. But it's paid off, and we're doing great.”

Major Investments in Newer Equipment

Ulises Meza is APC’s prep shop foreman and has worked here for nearly half of his life since he was 18The move was a game-changer, exhaustive, and expensive. Well over half of APC’s equipment was replaced. They say it was a major investment and a major change for the company, but afterward, they felt confident it was a smart move for them to grow and serve their existing customers and the new ones they planned to get.

Part of the excitement of the new move in 2018 was installing a five stage zirconium immersion pretreatment system in 25-foot-long tanks, utilizing baskets that take parts through the processes, manually racked and sent to a semi-automated spray booth. A lift takes the parts from the dual spray booth and sets the hanger rack onto a rolling rack, which they manually push into the oven.

APC customers are mostly in the aerospace, military, automotive, architectural, art, and medical industries. For aerospace and military coatings, APC has certification in MIL-C-24712A, chemical agent-resistant coating (CARC), MIL-A-8625 F, MIL-A-63576A, QQ-P-36c, MIL-C-5541E and MIL-DTL-81706B.

For medical coatings, APC can meet ISO 13485:2003 and ISO 10993-1 standards for less than 24 hours of implantation for medical devices into the human body or contact with body fluids.

Consulting Business Helps Other Powder Coaters

Chris Chete has been with the company for four years now and started in the prep shop doing media blasting. The Andrews started a consulting business about fifteen years ago to advise other shops worldwide and in the U.S. on expanding their operations and growing their business through approvals and certifications.

Their first project was helping a company set up operations in Trinidad and Tobago. They had an entire powder coating line manufactured and shipped to them for installation. They have also worked on projects in Mexico and Canada.

With its own U.S. powder coating facility, APC hasn’t rested on its laurels as it continues to invest in new equipment and technologies to serve its customers.

That includes a new Kaeser 50hp compressor installed in January 2024 and a Secotec refrigerated air dryer, which removes condensation from all airlines, such as powder guns, sandblasters, and compressed air lines.

“It’s so we don’t blow moisture into client parts while sandblasting and coating,” Andrews says. “We also installed a new PCEC-120 evaporative cooler and humidifier in October 2023 to create reverse air pressure in the shop and keep contaminates down and humidity up, which results in better parts.”

In addition, a new GEMA OptiFlex Pro F Spray 2P Gun went in November 2023 and is used to coat intricate parts in the aerospace sector. The company completely redid its technology center with a new computer system to meet cyber-compliance standards, a new phone system and team applications for better and faster communications. All of our equipment is calibrated annually, and cloud-based monitoring for all temperature and humidity controls is done 24/7. 

Almost Reducing Reworks to Zero

In 2018 APC installed a five stage zirconium immersion pretreatment system using 25-foot-long tanks.All that equipment and expertise helps APC maintain its quality levels, making it one of the premier shops in North America. Items such as the new evaporative cooler allow coatings held at about 30% humidification, and in a hot area like Southern California, trying to attain that humidity is difficult.

“We've always been known for good quality, but this piece of equipment has taken it up another level,” Andrew says. “We've had very few internal reworks before, but now we have almost none. It is less than 1% of any internal rework over the last two years.”

Another project improvement was remodeling an upstairs mezzanine area that Andrews calls a secured “Space Lab,” which is dedicated to doing work for their space program customers.

“We do a lot of satellite parts for direct prime contractors,” is all she will say about the area. “It is very secure as well, and we have a whole team working there.”

And more than just facilities have been the major focus for APC owners. They have a workforce of 15 that now enjoys healthcare provided to all employees and a new 401(k) plan with 5% employer matching.

“We're not automated at all, even though we've done some things to improve some flow,” Andrews says. “We are still very heavy, labor intensive, and we are not going to ever change from that because we believe that eyeballs on parts are better than blind guns on parts.”

Investing in Employees and Training

Eva Hahn is APC's Production Coordinator, and and also makes sure birthdays and anniversaries are celebrated.Even though they have numerous employees who have been with APC for over 20 years, Andrews says they train new employees with the thought that they want to keep them for a long time.

“We want them to stay, and if they're going to stay beyond 90 days, we're going to offer them a blanket of benefits to continually train them and have them stay here,” she says. “Other than the owners, we have several techs that have been here for over 20 years, which is unheard of in any manufacturing or finishing industry. We are pretty proud of that.”

A few of those who helped Andrews Powder Coating achieve its successes:

• Stanley Allen is their Space Lab Lead and is charged with document management — accepting and storing sensitive and classified prints on our CUI computer — plus reading and understanding integral masking surfaces, project management, and proper delegation of projects to meet their on-time delivery goals in line with their AS-9100 Certification.
• Floyd Alvarez is their lead pretreatment technician and ensures architectural aluminum extrusion is properly inventoried, racked, and put through the five-stage zirconium pretreatment system. His critical responsibilities include maintaining titration consistent levels from batch to batch, as this is the major qualifier for their AAMA 2605 Certification.
• Brian Buss CQE, CQA is the head of their Quality Assurance program. Along with his formal education as a mechanical engineer, he is an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer and an AS-9100 ISO-9001 Lead Auditor. Andrews says Buss has led them to take their daily practices and define measurables, standardize the processes, and create cloud-based and local document and record retention systems.
• Chris Chete has been with the company for four years now and started in the prep shop doing media blasting and learning about different metals, masking requirements, and different media used to address specific projects. He has recently been promoted to managing the back of the shop, including client services, order intake, final QC, and packaging.
• Eva Hahn is their Production Coordinator, and with five years of invaluable experience, she has exemplified astute project management, ensuring seamless operations at their powder coating facility. 
• Ulises Meza is APC’s prep shop foreman and has worked here for nearly half of his life since he was 18. Andrews says he is “of immeasurable value to our team. He has continued to grow with us and runs the prep shop like a tight ship. He gives an honest 100% every single day.”
• Dave Winge is their lead coating technician and completely recognizes the complexities that liquid and powder coatings can have. Andrews says he “has been here since he was a puppy himself 17 years ago and is now a proud father to his own little ‘pup’ Emi, his new daughter with his wife, Maria.” Winge started in their prep shop and has ascended through the ranks, working every position and understanding operational flow with enough capacity to mitigate bottlenecking. 

Sandee Andrews enjoys a quick laugh in between overseeing projects at APC.Andrews says they plan to continue growing their operations, both in facilities and equipment and in the workforce. They have invested in training for their employees and themselves, which has paid off handsomely.

“We realized while we were growing that we needed to have a leadership team because we only knew how to grow to a certain point,” she says. “And Brian, our QC consultant, has been great at being a good leader for us.”

Andrews also has retained a personal growth coach.

“They listen to and direct us on what to do next,” she says. “We meet once a week with a good advisory board of people, get our next steps down, and continue to grow.”

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