Metal Finishing Company was founded in a small building in downtown Wichita, Kansas by Harley Babst.  Our initial focus was to provide surface finishing for the burgeoning aircraft and agricultural industries in the Midwest.  We are proud to have supported the war effort during World War II as our military aggressively built an aircraft fleet under the Army Air Corps to defend our nation.  Harley successfully navigated the company during those early years but passed away unexpectedly in 1967 at which time his son Bob Babst assumed responsibility for our daily operations at the age of 19.

Bob struggled with a difficult economy in the 1970’s but was able to persevere and grow the company patiently with a focus on expanding our capabilities to serve as a one-stop shop for our customers.  Under Bob’s leadership, Metal Finishing Company diversified away from a sole focus on conventional plating and surface finishing by adding a variety of related processes such as Non-Destructive Testing, Painting, Shot Peen, and Flame Spray Coatings.  During this time, we opened our Diversified Services processing facility in Wellington, Kansas with the unique capability to perform processing on parts up to 80’ long. 

Our third generation of family ownership began to be represented when Rob Babst began full time employment in 1999 and eventually assumed leadership of the company in 2008. A few years later, Alex Babst joined our team to further represent the third generation as our IT Systems Architect. In the ensuing years, we continued to expand our footprint and capabilities through additions such as our Murdock Blue Streak Facility, Automated 10-Axis Composite Inspection capability, and our full service Heat Treat Division. In 2011 we gained an international presence when we opened a state-of-the-art processing facility in Chihuahua City to support the burgeoning aerospace market in Mexico.

Today we are proud to be the largest family-owned aerospace processing company in North America, with a knowledgeable team of dedicated professionals. Metal Finishing Company hold hundreds of aerospace and commercial OEM processing approvals and maintains 17 distinct NADCAP accreditations. Whether it is aluminum, steel, titanium, magnesium, or more exotic alloys – chances are Metal Finishing Company has a solution for your needs. Through three generations of family ownership and management our commitment remains the same – to provide exceptional service and quality at a competitive price to ensure manufacturing success for our customers.