Small-Scale Anodizing Helps Mountain Sledding Innovator Take Control

It’s often said that the true master of the art of living makes no distinction between work and play. Combining the thrill of riding a ski-doo with the adrenaline rush of alpine skiing, mountain sledding is a part winter sport, part motorsport and one of those hobbies that easily morphs into an obsession. Andrew Munster of Whistler, British Columbia, has taken that obsession and turned it into a business. Growing up in the snowy mountain terrain, Munster has a natural passion for snow sports. He combined that with a love of invention to create Munster Canada, a company devoted to designing high-quality aftermarket snowmobile parts.

The business was started out of a backyard workshop and has grown from there. All of Munster’s products are created from the design stage through machining and assembly at its workshop in Squamish, British Columbia. Passion is truly the name of the game at Munster. The company works hard and plays hard. When there’s snow on the ground, you can find the Munster crew out testing products and pushing them to the limit. Then, it’s back to the workshop to continue to improve and refine their designs.

With such devotion to the work, it’s no surprise the Munster team prefers to have as much control over every aspect of their process as possible. The company had been outsourcing the anodizing of its products but was having trouble with the consistency of the anodizing and challenging lead times. Its anodizing supplier was 2½ hours away and Munster began to consider bringing the process in-house to have more control over timing and quality. Adding a new process is always a large undertaking, but the Munster team was ready to embrace the challenge.

“We first educated ourselves on the process of anodizing then began to look for what was out there,” says Jake Quinn, business partner at Munster. “Surprisingly, there is a large gap in the market for mid-range size systems.”

The company turned to specialty chemical and custom finishing equipment supplier Technic (Cranston, R.I.), which offers a line of mini plating plants designed to provide countertop small-scale production or prototype testing for research and development applications. The units are available in standard configurations or may be customized. A small-scale anodizing line seemed to be just the solution Munster was looking for and it ultimately settled on Technic’s Laboratory Anodizing Mini Plant (LAMP) unit.

The LAMP is designed to provide a complete manual anodizing line in a compact footprint. The modular system has two compartmentalized stations — a pre-finish module for cleaning and surface modification, and a second module for anodizing and post-treatment. In addition, an optional 50-gallon Moonstone wastewater treatment system by Kontek Water Systems is also available to accompany the line.

Technic describes the LAMP as an “entry-level system designed for machine shops and OEM manufacturers interested in having an internal unit with R&D capabilities.” The LAMP allows for specific anodizing processes to be developed and optimized through application testing.

“We developed the Technic LAMP system to address the growing demand for in-house anodizing that would not only provide ease operation, and versatility on an affordable scale for smaller shops. The LAMP system also serves as a great R and D platform,” says Christian Ebbrecht, marketing manager of anodizing systems for Technic.

In addition to providing the LAMP unit, Technic also provided support in getting Munster’s new anodizing capability up and running. Ebbrecht worked with the team at Munster to walk them through using the equipment and help establish their process.

“When we met Christian, we realized right away this was the company we wanted to work with,” Quinn says. “Being new to the anodizing world, we really needed guidance and Chris completely took us under his wing, walking us through every step of the process from the design of the unit, to power and venting requirements, to the correct lab equipment required, to chemical supplier contacts, all the way through commissioning the unit — he personally flew out and gave us the complete run down. We were confidently anodizing in-house by the time he left.”

With the new anodizing system in place, Munster has taken control of another aspect of its product creation and continues to pursue its passion of creating some of the best snowmobile parts and accessories available — and putting them to the test on the mountainside.