Top Shops: Investment Returns Smiles at TNM

The smile on the face of Michel Martel, general manager of anodizing and paint at TNM Anodizing and Paint in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, was ear-to-ear after hearing that his company was named one of Products Finishing’s Top Shops for 2015

“Our hard work and efforts to be a top performer in our industry has been our goal for the past couple of years,” Martel says. “With our upcoming expansion of doubling our current size and capacity—and adding a plating division—this will be a true bonus to our marketing for the coming years.”

TNM was established in 1996 and specializes in surface finishing treatment for the aviation industry. They have many approvals that have been granted by the major OEMs in aerospace, and are certified for ISO 9001, AS9100 and Nadcap.

Martel says TNM’s goal is to provide its customers with a one-stop shop for all surface finishing processes. TNM will soon begin a major expansion by adding almost 40,000 square feet, doubling its present size. 

This investment of almost $10 million will include an automated anodizing line with 24-foot basins, a second NDT line, more shot peening equipment, a new paint department with four large downdraft paint booths and an automated paint cell with UV curing.

“We will also be starting a new plating division which will make us a more complete one stop shop for processing,” he says.

In the past year, TNM has invested in upgrading equipment, mainly around its 48-basin anodizing line, replacing basins and rectifiers, as well as upgrading electrical work. The exhaust and waste water treatment was completely revamped and improved in preparation for accreditation for the ISO14001 environmental application.

 

Major Expansion Project

“Our expansion and new equipment is needed to allow us the room and capacity to take on more of our customer’s current workload, and to ensure that we are ready to accommodate their increasing workload and ramp up from the major OEMs,” Martel says. “Since we hold approvals for most of the aerospace OEMs such as Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier, Gulfstream and many others, the workload and ramp up of many of their programs will be significant in the coming years.”

TNM’s new paint booths will allow for two painters to be painting at the same time, doubling its capacity to eight painters per shift (two shifts total), compared to four per shift.

TNM is working with a well-known automation company AVR for its new automated paint line, which at first will be used only for the primer stage.

“It will provide us with better control of our processes for paint, cost savings in paint and a 25–35 percent improvement in productivity,” Martel says.

The company was founded by Gilles Demers and Marcel Desjarlais to support their manufacturing needs in finishing processing in the aerospace industry, serving primarily Boeing and Bombardier in a 10,000-square-foot facility. In 2005, TNR moved into its present location, a 38,000-square-foot facility.

Martel joined TNM in 2006 after working with both owners in their manufacturing aerospace divisions. In 2010, he was promoted to general manager and immediately put a plan together to make TNM a respected one-stop shop in the aerospace finishing industry.

“The goal was simple and straight forward, but the road to get there not so simple,” he says. “After establishing our priorities, I began putting together a strong management team and with the help of our director of operations, Mohamad Shebarou, we set out to change the culture on the shop floor, putting new systems in place to finally see that our vision and plans started to succeed.”

Next, they sat down with their major OEMs and customers to understand their needs and requirements for the years to come. Martel says they adjusted their plans to what was being asked of them, and started to set their goals.

“We had a five-year plan to meet our goals and actually surpassed many of them in 3 ½ years,” he says. 

Originally published in the October 2015 issue.