Surging Aerospace Industry Prompts Heat Treat Expansion
(Editor’s Note; Commercial heat treater Stack Metallurgical Group based in Portland, Oregon, USA has seen double digit growth over the past few years, at least partly because of growth in the commercial aviation sector. The company explains how this growth has prompted a major expansion of their Salt Lake City location. To find out more about “Stack” we would suggest this article from “The Monty” “52 Largest North American Commercial Heat Treaters”).
“The commercial aviation sector is experiencing one of the most aggressive production ramp-ups in modern manufacturing history. With single-aisle aircraft build rates eventually surging to well over 100 aircraft per month, Tier 1 suppliers and machine shops face intense pressure to deliver finished, flight-critical components on tighter schedules than ever before.
To stay well ahead of these production curves, Stack Metallurgical Group is actively executing a major expansion of its Salt Lake City facility (Aerospace Aluminum Processing / ASAP). By securing additional manufacturing space in an adjacent building and installing state-of-the-art processing equipment, Stack is reinforcing its position as a high-capacity partner for aerospace, defense, and space manufacturers across North America.
What’s Inside the Salt Lake Expansion? The Salt Lake City facility has long operated as a dedicated center of excellence for aerospace aluminum processing. Rather than making incremental modifications, this expansion represents a comprehensive scaling of the plant’s footprint, equipment, and environmental controls.
Key additions underway include:
- Securing and Outfitting Additional Manufacturing Space: Stack has acquired space in the facility directly adjacent to its primary Salt Lake plant, effectively multiplying available floor space to streamline part flow, staging, and packaging.
- Expanded Painting & Curing Capacity: Installation of a new line of paint booths and matching curing booths engineered specifically to handle high-mix, high-tolerance aerospace primers and topcoats.
- New Anodizing Line with Expanded Capabilities: A second chemical processing line which will allow for Type III Black and Clear anodizing, while maintaining rigid Nadcap and OEM bath chemistry tolerances.
- Advanced Air Handling & Environmental Systems: New, energy-efficient makeup air units and filtration systems to ensure strict environmental compliance, clean-room spray environments, and superior operator safety.
By running the buildout in dedicated adjacent space, the facility maintains normal operations and uninterrupted turn times for active client programs throughout construction.
The Catalyst: Surging Aircraft Build Rates & Defense Modernization; Aerospace supply chains have historically suffered when downstream processing bottlenecks stall machined components waiting for surface treatment, heat treating, or coating. Stack’s expansion is designed to eliminate that friction.
Proactive Investment Ahead of the Ramp; When airframers expand production targets, the volume of structural and interior aluminum details multiplies very quickly.
“As build rates accelerate across commercial aerospace, the volume of parts requiring outside processing rises dramatically,” notes Doug Puerta, CEO of Stack Metallurgical Group. “It’s not our style to wait until constraints exist to make investments. We are making proactive investments in physical square footage, advanced automation, and processing infrastructure now so our customers have dependable runways as their shipsets scale.”
Broadening Support for Defense and Space; Beyond commercial transport, regional demand from defense contractors and private space launch providers is accelerating. These platforms demand the exact same caliber of quality control, traceability, and rapid turnaround that commercial aerospace requires. The Salt Lake expansion gives Stack the bandwidth to support high-priority defense contracts without compromising commercial schedules.
The Salt Lake Facility: A Pure Aerospace Specialty
Every facility within the Stack Metallurgical Group network brings distinct capabilities to market, and the Salt Lake City operation is built from the ground up around aerospace aluminum components:
Holding top-tier quality certifications including Nadcap accreditation and multiple customer approvals (such as recurring recognition from Boeing Salt Lake), the SLC facility operates as a single-stop outside processing hub. Machinists can ship raw aluminum parts to one location and receive completely heat-treated, anodized, painted, and inspected assemblies ready for final installation.
What This Means for Precision Machine Shops and OEMs; For procurement teams and operations managers navigating an increasingly volatile supply chain, this expansion delivers three key advantages:
- Compressed Lead Times: Parallel paint and curing bays reduce line changeover delays and shorten queue times.
- Reduced Logistics Costs: Consolidating thermal processing, anodizing, painting, and testing under one roof minimizes freight transit legs and part handling risks.
- Protected Production Schedules: Proactive capacity safeguards your deliveries against line shutdowns when airframers surge monthly quotas.”