FAA Grants HighTech Finishing Part 145 Repair Station Certification

HOUSTON — HighTech Finishing recently was awarded a Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) Part 145 repair station certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and now is authorized to issue return to service form 8130-3 for decorative plating of aircraft parts.

“Over the years, the FAA has been more and more vocal about decorative plating of aircraft parts so, as an added value to our customers, we elected to pursue the Part 145 repair station certification,” explained Rick Niefield, HighTech’s vice president of sales and marketing. “Along with our ISO9001/AS9100 designation that we received several years ago, the Part 145 Repair Station benefits customers as it allows us to issue return to service form 8130-3 for any parts we plate. Since most of our customers are also repair stations, the ability for us to have an FAA approved decorative plating process makes it easier for them to ensure the decorative plated parts they install on the aircraft meet traceability and regulatory requirements.”

The five phases that lead to the 14 CFR Part 145 Repair Station Certification include pre-application, formal application, document compliance, demonstration and inspection, and certification. Through this process, HighTech’s programs, systems and methods of compliance were scrutinized, evaluated and tested to ensure they met the FAA’s high standards.

For more than 20 years, HighTech Finishing has exclusively served the aviation industry, supplying superior-quality decorative metal plating for interior hardware and trim parts for business and head-of-state aircraft. From design implementation to zero-defect quality production, HighTech Finishing offers more than 130 standard finishes and unlimited custom-matching capabilities and has the largest available processing capacity in the aviation market. HighTech Finishing is the only aviation decorative plating supplier to have received both the FAA Part 145 Repair Station and ISO9001/AS9100 quality management system certification designations.