Episode 36: An Interview with Peter Mirabello, Metal Finishing Technologies LLC

In this installment of On the Line, we take a look at evolving material solutions trends and what they mean for finishers, particularly with regard to ways in which lightweighting and electrification of aerospace and automotive applications are influencing finishing operations. Peter Mirabello is chairman of Metal Finishing Technologies LLC (MFT), a company with a 75-year legacy in metal finishing with much of its work focused on aerospace and defense, including a large maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) division. Mirabello recently spoke with Products Finishing about his passion for surface finishing and trends shaping the industry today.

PF: Tell us a bit about your career in manufacturing.

PM: I started as an engineer working on next-generation parts for jet engines. I got a chance to go to Europe and be part of the Airbus-Boeing battle and help Airbus win some market share on the A-320s, and help the company I was with, International Aero Engines, win the motor share of the V2500 versus CFM. After that, I was an architect with a Berkshire Hathaway company known as NetJets. Finally, I wound up at MFT, which took what I knew in manufacturing, what I knew about service, and what I understood about how important fleet availability was and tied it all together.

PF: A significant amount of your work is in aerospace and defense — can you talk a bit about the role finishing plays in aerospace?

PM: At the end of the day, there are two things that matter [in commercial aerospace] — the cost of operation and fleet availability. There’s an opportunity where parts are very expensive to manufacture and they’re pulled out by the FAA or mandated by some sort of life limit to them. At a certain point, parts are usually taken out of the airplane because they’re worn below tolerance. In the past, those parts might be scrapped. There’s now the ability to build up those surfaces, refinish it and return it to service. It’s a huge industry with a tremendous impact on the environment. You’re now calling for less materials from the Earth, as well as compressing the downtime of an airplane. You’re also no longer standing in the long lead time lines to get backup parts. So finishing has a really intricate place in the [aerospace] ecosystem, especially in the overhaul but also in the manufacture of new aircraft. It’s here and it’s not going away.

PF: Can you talk about how trends toward lightweighting and electrification in areas such as aerospace and automotive are influencing the finishing industry today?

PM: It has opened up even more opportunities. Obviously, finishing has been around for a long time. But when you look at aerospace or automobiles, it’s really about weight, right? If you can make an aircraft lighter, that means you can either put more passengers on it for a larger payload, or you can fly further because you can add more fuel. And the way you do it is by using these new materials, these new alloys — but they need to be finished to still be able to resist heat or corrosion or have the required strength.

So the need for finishing is there. Take additive manufacturing, for example, and plating on plastics. It’s a very economical way to make something because you don’t need the tooling. You just need some powder and a printer and you can create parts anywhere in the world. But, you still have to finish them. I think the need for finishing is at an inflection point. As you get into electric vehicles, drones, next-generation communications and satellites, finishing is going to continue to play a key role in those things. Again, using lighter materials, different alloys — they still need to be finished in order to perform the way they’re supposed to.

PF: Can you talk about some of the career opportunities you see in this industry?

PM: For young folks entering the workforce, there’s a real need for skilled people in manufacturing, and particularly in finishing — and you have a chance to move up fairly quickly.

These are really impactful jobs. When you’re talking about dealing with the environment — that’s impactful. When you’re talking about the limited number of resources that are on the periodic table and knowing how we use those resources and how we recycle, reuse or return them — that’s impactful. When you see some of the parts that require finishing and how intricate they are, and you understand the masking, the chemistry and how to achieve a consistent buildup — that’s impactful.

There is a lot of engineering required, a lot of science is required — and also a need for the ability to go out and articulate it. When you understand how a business works, you become very valuable to that business.