About Us

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Kenlen Specialties was founded in 1980 by Ken and Linda Hood. In the beginning, Kenlen was a molding company that made thousands of prototypes and parts for the computer industry including keyboards, monitors, and towers. As the industry boomed in the 80's, there was a emerging market for painted prototypes as they looked better to potential investors. Seeing an opportunity, Ken added this process to our production sequence by finishing off the parts with a quality paint job. 

The demand grew so large for painting that within 2 years of opening their doors, Ken and Linda moved their business to a larger facility in Fountain Valley, CA. We are still located here to this day. With the business's new primary focus becoming paint operations, Ken set out to ramp up production to service this heavy demand. We installed conveyor lines overhead, put in multiple painting booths and even installed a double-sided booth to allow us to spray parts twice as fast as competitors. Liquid paint became our primary source of work, and we expanded to include metal parts and plastics.

Later on, powder coating became increasingly popular and many of our largest customers began requesting their products to be powder coated. We soon installed a phosphate washer and a conveyor line specific to powder coating. Still in use to this day, this line allowed us to hit our stride in production. At it's peak, the line produces 100,000 small parts in a single 8 hour shift. 

Fast-forward to 2014:

After 35 years in the industry, Ken and Linda looked for ways to find continued success as they transitioned into retirement. Their grandson Tyler Wilhelm, a fresh graduate from University of Oregon, began to learn the business and take over operations. With each passing year, Kenlen has enjoyed successful growth under this new leadership. In 2020, Tyler officially became President of Kenlen Specialties. With a vision for growth into new industries and markets, Tyler has expanded capabilities, brought on new high volume customers and continues to develop the company.

A message from Tyler:

As President of Kenlen Specialties, I look forward to each new job as a challenge and as an opportunity to help our customers achieve quality finishes to deliver to their clients. My personal goal is to be a resource of aid and information regarding coatings, specialized applications and technical information.  My goal for this company is to consistently deliver quality, give accurate completion dates, and work closely with our customers to save cost, where possible, by a variety of methods. I look forward to working with you and appreciate your business.