COATING COMPANY HAS ROOM TO GROW AT MOJAVE AIRPORT.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

When the aerospace fastener coatings company he ran in the San Fernando Valley was bought out by a larger firm, Robert Briley left to start his own.

With partner Tom Lamona, he launched INCOTEC - Innovative Coatings Technology Corp. - in November 1992 at the Mojave Airport, where land was cheaper than in the San Fernando Valley or Los Angeles basin.

The first couple of years were lean.

``We started this business right in the decline of the aerospace industry,'' said Briley, who has been in the trade since 1972. ``Commercial aerospace was going through the worst recession since World War II.''

But now he expects his company will grow right along with the booming commercial aircraft market, producing nuts and bolts with corrosion-resistant or lubricating coatings for firms such as Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and the European company Aerospatiale.

Anticipating a workload increase, INCOTEC will spend about $1 million this year to add a 15,000-square-foot building and new equipment.

Now with 50 employees working in a 6,000-square-foot building, Briley expects to add at least 25 workers by 1998. Briley envisions having to make another 15,000 square foot expansion in mid-1998.

``We'll have a good four years of strong growth and then it should even out,'' Briley said of the commercial aerospace market. ``We're looking at a solid eight-year ride.''

INCOTEC is the kind of company Antelope Valley civic leaders are looking for right now.

With the military continuing to cut back, Antelope Valley economic leaders are hoping commercial aviation work will help the region's ailing aerospace industry.

``There's no question about it. That's the kind of industry we need,'' said Lancaster Mayor Frank Roberts.

The company provides coatings for nuts and bolts for military uses, notably on the C-17 transport, but about 85 percent of the business is geared toward commercial aircraft.

After a recent slump, commercial aerospace is going strong. Boeing Co., which supplies 64 percent of the aircraft to the world's airlines, recorded 717 orders for jetliners in 1996, more than twice the number ordered in 1995.

INCOTEC makes a dozen different coatings. Fastener companies want coatings that are corrosion resistant and that have lubricity so they can be inserted into an airframe without damaging it.

The nuts and bolts themselves are made elsewhere and shipped to the Mojave plant.

The coating process itself starts with an inspection using micrometers that can measure as many as 250 points along the shank. The fasteners are cleaned, inspected again, coated using automated sprayers, inspected, fired in an oven capable of temperatures up to 600 degrees, and inspected again before going out to the customer.

Briley, who will become sole owner of the business when Lamona retires this month after 50 years in the industry, emphasizes the technical aspects of the company's operation. The company has a computerized microscope that can measure a coating thickness to within 0.00005 inch. A test chamber can put the coatings through temperatures ranging from 80 degrees below zero to 800 degrees above.

Another test chamber can simulate salt spray and fog conditions to test corrosion resistance, and another device can measure wear life and pressure resistance.

``We're not the Earl Schieb of fasteners,'' Briley said. ``It's not some guy with an aerosol can painting a bolt.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1--color) Owner Robert Briley, left, and supervisor son Rob check their work.

(2) Assistant lab technician Randy Briley, left, and father Robert Briley test fastener coats at the family firm.

(3) Aircraft bolts are coated with an anti-corrosion or lubricated surface at the Innovative Coatings Technology Corp. in Mojave, an example of the kind of industries community leaders hope will flourish in the Antelope Valley.

Jeff Goldwater/Daily News