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Viking Air Approved Electroless Nickel Processor — Entech
CUSTOMER APPROVAL · VIKING AIR
VIKING AIR · APPROVED PROCESSOR

Viking Air Plating Callout, Approved End-to-End.

Entech is an approved Viking Air processor for the full electroless nickel callout chain — pre-plate cleaning, the plating bath itself, and the post-plate heat-treatment cycle. Five active VAPS / VAERD specifications, three process pillars, one shop. No subbed-out bake. No callout-chain handoffs.

Approved on
NADCAP CP AS9100D ISO 9001:2015 ITAR

What “Viking Air approved” actually covers — and why it’s a five-spec callout.

Most “Viking approved” claims are scoped to a single specification. Entech’s approval spans the entire electroless nickel callout chain on a Viking print — five active VAPS / VAERD specs across three process pillars, all witnessed and qualified by Viking technical assessors against active test coupons and salt-spray verification.

Viking Air Process Specifications (VAPS) are the customer-controlled standards that govern how Viking Air’s Twin Otter Series 400, the CL-415 / CL-515 firefighting amphibian program, and the de Havilland Canada DHC product line under the Viking Air operating brand are processed by approved suppliers. The associated Viking Air Engineering Requirement Documents (VAERD) cover supporting equipment — ovens, DI water, compressed air — and the calibration controls behind them.

When “Viking Air approved” appears on a procurement requirement, what matters is the scope of the approval. A plating shop approved only for VAPS 160-026 (the EN plating bath) still needs to sub out cleaning, blasting, baking, and salt spray to outside vendors — adding schedule risk, paperwork friction, and supply-chain failure points to every lot.

Entech runs the entire Viking EN callout under one roof: alkaline cleaning per VAPS 180-001, aqueous degreasing per VAPS 180-040, electroless nickel plating per VAPS 160-026, heat treatment / hardness verification per VAPS 168-006, and post-plate oven control (stress relief, hardening, hydrogen embrittlement relief) per VAERD GEN-007. Five active specs. One supplier. One traveler document.

The technical assessment that established this approval was conducted on-site by Viking Air assessors and covered every stage of the callout chain — pre-plate prep witness, plating bath qualification, post-plate bake oven calibration, thickness verification, and salt-spray qualification on production-condition test coupons. Entech is on the Viking Air approved supplier list for the end-to-end EN callout, not a fragment of it.

Issuing OEM
Viking Air Limited
Canadian aerospace OEM operating the Twin Otter Series 400, CL-415 firefighting amphibian, and de Havilland Canada DHC brand product lines.
Approval Scope
Five Active Specs
VAPS 160-026 · 180-001 · 180-040 · 168-006 plus VAERD GEN-007. Covers Clean · Plate · Heat-Treat end-to-end.
Process Pillars
Clean · Plate · Bake
Single-source the entire Viking EN callout chain. No subbed-out bake. No callout-chain handoffs. One traveler document covers the lot.
Qualification
Witnessed On-Site
Approval established by on-site Viking technical assessment covering active coupons, oven calibration, and salt-spray testing.

Five active specs. Three process pillars. One approved supplier.

The Viking Air callout chain decomposes into three pillars — clean, plate, heat-treat. Below, each pillar with its active specs, process scope, and where it fits in the lot route. Each spec has a dedicated anchor for procurement reference.

01
Clean & Prep
Pre-Plate Surface Preparation
2 Specs
vaps-180-001
VAPS 180-001
Alkaline Cleaning

Pre-plate alkaline cleaning to the Viking 180-001 envelope — removes shop oils, machining residues, and surface organics before acid activation. Tank chemistry maintained inside the Viking control band by titration; bath temperature, immersion time, and rinse cycle logged on the traveler.

Pillar 01 Pre-Plate Witnessed
vaps-180-040
VAPS 180-040
Aqueous Degreasing

Aqueous degreasing per the Viking 180-040 specification. Sits in the cleaning chain alongside alkaline clean and acid activation; substrates released into the EN bath only after the full clean-degrease-activate sequence is signed off against the traveler.

Pillar 01 Pre-Plate Witnessed
02
Electroless Nickel Plating
The Headline Spec · The EN Bath
1 Spec
vaps-160-026
VAPS 160-026
Electroless Nickel Plating — The Headliner

VAPS 160-026 is the Viking Air electroless nickel plating specification — the customer-controlled standard that governs bath chemistry, deposit characteristics, allowable substrates, post-treatment, and inspection criteria for EN work on Viking parts. Entech runs the bath inside the VAPS 160-026 envelope under NADCAP Chemical Processing accreditation, with daily titration, real-time temperature and pH monitoring, and thickness developed against the drawing tolerance. Selective masking applied where the print requires it. Each shipment carries a certificate of conformance citing VAPS 160-026, NADCAP audit reference, lot ID, thickness verification, and the embrittlement-relief bake record.

Pillar 02 Plating Bath High-Phos Available Witnessed Salt-Spray Qualified
03
Heat Treatment
Post-Plate Oven Chain · In-House
2 Specs
vaps-168-006
VAPS 168-006
Heat Treatment & Materials Testing

Heat treatment / materials-testing callout from the Viking 168 series. Sits alongside VAERD GEN-007 in the post-plate thermal chain — covers hardness verification, processing control, and the materials-testing discipline tied to the EN deposit acceptance criteria. Run in-house under the same NADCAP-witnessed oven calibration as VAERD GEN-007.

Pillar 03 Post-Plate Hardness Control
vaerd-gen-007
VAERD GEN-007
Oven HER · Stress Relief · Hardening

Viking Air Engineering Requirements Document for oven heat treatment. Covers three thermal callouts on the same calibrated oven: stress relief (Class 25 Type B), hardening (Class 15 Type B), and hydrogen embrittlement relief (Class 25 Type B — the mandatory post-plate bake on high-strength steels, executed within the 4-hour window after plating). All three run in-house. No subbed-out bake steps; the lot doesn’t leave the building between plating and bake.

Pillar 03 HER Bake 4-hr Window Oven Calibrated

Collins LGPS approval streamlined the Viking qualification.

Entech’s existing Collins Aerospace LGPS 1108 and LGPS 1104 approvals were accepted by Viking Air’s technical assessment as proven landing-gear electroless nickel plating credentials, reducing the qualification-coupon quantity required to establish the Viking approval.

Aerospace primes cross-recognize each other’s audit work — when an EN plater has already cleared Collins Aerospace’s source-survey audit at landing-gear quality, Viking accepts that as evidence the chemistry, lot controls, and HER bake discipline meet its own requirements with reduced incremental testing. This is what Tier-1 cross-recognition looks like in practice, and it’s the reason EN suppliers without Collins / Boeing / Lockheed-tier credentials struggle to get on the Viking list: there is no shortcut to the second OEM if the first one hasn’t already cleared the supplier.

How Entech runs a Viking Air lot — from drawing to dock.

Each step exists to remove a variable. By the time your parts hit the bath, every Viking-controlled requirement — chemistry envelope, oven calibration, HER bake window, lot documentation — is already locked.

01

Submit Drawing & Viking Callout

You send the part drawing, material certificate, finish callout, and program-level Viking requirements (Twin Otter, CL-415, DHC). We confirm which VAPS / VAERD specs apply, substrate envelope, and any masking or selective-plate zones before quoting.

02

Process Review & Pillar Sequencing

Process engineering matches the substrate to the right pillar sequence — clean (180-001 / 180-040), plate (160-026), heat-treat (168-006 / VAERD GEN-007). HER bake and any hardening cycles are scheduled into the route before the bath, so the 4-hour window holds.

03

Run the Full Callout

Clean → plate → bake, in-house. Bath chemistry and oven temperature controlled to the Viking envelope, daily titration, X-ray thickness verification cross-checked against destructive method data on file. Lot stays in one shop from clean tank to bake oven.

04

Inspect, Document & Ship

Thickness verification, salt-spray sample on lot coupons, embrittlement-relief bake record, oven calibration trace, and certificate of conformance citing every VAPS / VAERD spec and NADCAP CP. Packaged for international export and shipped on schedule worldwide.

Related approvals, sibling specs, and the parent process.

The Viking Air approval sits inside a larger landscape of customer-specific and aerospace-industry approvals Entech holds. Here’s how to navigate from this page to the closest neighbours.

Viking Air approval — the questions buyers ask us most.

Direct answers, with the spec numbers, certification IDs, and validity dates aerospace procurement engineers need to evidence sourcing.

Q: Is Entech an approved Viking Air processor?
A: Yes. Entech holds active Viking Air approval as an approved processor for the full electroless nickel callout chain. The approval was established by an on-site technical assessment witnessed by Viking Air assessors and is executed under our NADCAP Chemical Processing accreditation (Cert 24321236442) valid through February 28, 2027.
Q: Which Viking Air specifications does Entech hold?
A: Entech is approved for five active Viking Air specifications across three process pillars: VAPS 180-001 (Alkaline Cleaning) and VAPS 180-040 (Aqueous Degreasing) for pre-plate cleaning; VAPS 160-026 for electroless nickel plating; VAPS 168-006 (Heat Treatment / Materials Testing) and VAERD GEN-007 (Oven Heat Treatment — Stress Relief, Hardening, Hydrogen Embrittlement Relief) for the post-plate heat-treatment chain.
Q: Does Entech run the hydrogen embrittlement relief (HER) bake in-house?
A: Yes. The post-plate HER bake is executed in-house under VAERD GEN-007 — Entech's oven is calibrated to the spec and runs the bake within four hours of plating, as required for high-strength steels. Class 25 Type B (190°C / 23 hr minimum) is the standard cycle. No sub-contracted bake steps.
Q: Did Entech's Collins LGPS approval help with the Viking qualification?
A: Yes. Per the 2026 Viking technical assessment, Entech's existing Collins Aerospace LGPS 1108 / 1104 approvals were accepted as proven landing-gear electroless nickel plating credentials, reducing the qualification-coupon quantity required to establish the Viking approval. Aerospace primes cross-recognize each other's audit work — a supplier that has cleared Collins source-survey audits at landing-gear quality is a credible Viking candidate with reduced incremental testing.
Q: What aircraft programs does the Viking Air approval support?
A: The Viking Air approval covers electroless nickel work on the Twin Otter Series 400, the CL-415 / CL-515 firefighting amphibian programs, and the de Havilland Canada DHC product line under Viking Air's operating brand. Entech ships processed components from Toronto worldwide.
Q: How do I request a Viking Air quote from Entech?
A: Submit a quote request at https://enplating.ca/contactus with your part drawing, material certificate, and finish callout citing the relevant VAPS or VAERD specification. Entech responds with a process review and quote within one business day.

Talk to a process engineer about your Viking Air part.

Send us the drawing, material certificate, and finish callout. We’ll confirm which VAPS / VAERD specs apply, scope the full pillar sequence (clean → plate → bake), and respond with a quote and lead time inside one business day.

Cert 24321236442 · NADCAP CP through Feb 28, 2027 · AS9100D · ITAR · Worldwide shipping