🔥 NADCAP
NADCAP-Accredited Special Processes Near Burlington, NC
NADCAP is the aerospace and defense industry's accreditation program for special processes, the operations like heat treatment, welding, nondestructive testing, and chemical processing whose quality can't be fully confirmed by inspecting the finished part. A Burlington shop or its subcontractors carrying NADCAP accreditation for a specific process means that process has passed rigorous, industry-managed audits. For buyers in the Triad sourcing aerospace or defense work, understanding which processes need NADCAP and where the accreditation actually sits is the difference between a compliant supply chain and a hidden gap.
NADCAPAS9100ISO 9001
What NADCAP Accredits and Why Special Processes Are Different
Special processes are operations where you can't verify quality by measuring the finished part. You can't see whether a heat treat achieved the right metallurgical structure by looking at a bracket, you can't confirm a weld's internal soundness with a caliper, and you can't measure whether a passivation actually restored corrosion resistance. These processes have to be controlled at the process level, and NADCAP exists to audit that control to consistent aerospace standards across the industry.
NADCAP accreditation is process-specific. A supplier accredited for heat treating is not automatically accredited for welding or nondestructive testing; each commodity, heat treat, welding, NDT, chemical processing, coatings, materials testing, is audited and accredited separately. This matters enormously for Burlington sourcing, because a shop may legitimately hold NADCAP for one process while subcontracting others, and you need to know which is which.
For the Triad, the practical reality is that few general fabrication or machining shops perform their own special processes in house. Most route heat treat, NDT, and surface treatment to specialized providers. A Burlington machining shop building aerospace parts is therefore usually managing a chain of NADCAP-accredited special-process suppliers rather than holding all the accreditations itself.
Tracing Where the Accreditation Actually Lives in Your Chain
Because special processes are typically subcontracted, the buyer's job is to trace where each NADCAP accreditation actually sits. A Burlington machining shop quoting an aerospace part may perform the machining under AS9100 and send the heat treat, NDT, and plating to outside accredited sources. That's normal and acceptable, but only if every special process your part requires lands at a genuinely NADCAP-accredited supplier for that specific process.
Verification runs through eAuditNet, the system PRI uses to manage NADCAP, which lets you confirm a supplier's accreditation status and the specific processes covered. Ask the Burlington shop to identify the special-process suppliers in your part's flow and confirm each holds current NADCAP accreditation for the exact process, not just NADCAP in general. A supplier accredited for one type of NDT may not be accredited for the method your drawing specifies.
The common failure is a gap nobody catches until an audit. A part flows through a heat treater that's NADCAP-accredited but for a different process than your part needs, or through a plater whose accreditation lapsed. The lead Burlington supplier should own this flow-down and be able to show you the accreditation for every special process in the chain, with the certs flowing back into your traceability package.
Documentation and Certs That Flow Back to the Buyer
Every special process in an aerospace part's flow should generate certifications that flow back into your documentation. For heat treatment, that means a cert tied to the lot showing the process parameters and conformance to the specified spec. For NDT, it means the inspection record and the qualified inspector's certification. For chemical processing and coatings, it means certs confirming the process met the controlling specification.
These certs aren't optional paperwork; they're part of proving the special process was performed correctly when you can't verify it on the part itself. A capable Burlington supplier consolidates them so your complete traceability package includes the special-process certifications alongside the machining inspection results and material certs. If a special-process cert is missing, the part's conformance can't be fully demonstrated, and on flight hardware that's a real problem.
When the part requires it, ask for the specific specification each process was performed to and confirm it matches your drawing's callout. A heat treat performed to the wrong spec, or a coating to a different thickness class, can pass a generic cert while still being nonconforming to your requirement. The cert has to match the callout, not just exist.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not necessarily. NADCAP accredits special processes, heat treatment, welding, nondestructive testing, chemical processing, coatings, materials testing, not general machining. A Burlington machining shop typically performs machining under AS9100 and subcontracts the special processes to specialized providers who hold NADCAP accreditation for those specific operations. That arrangement is normal and fully acceptable for aerospace and defense work, as long as every special process your part requires lands at a genuinely NADCAP-accredited source for that exact process. The shop you contract with should own the flow-down, identifying its special-process suppliers, confirming each holds current accreditation for the specific process, and consolidating the resulting certifications into your traceability package. So the right question isn't whether the machining shop itself holds NADCAP, but whether every special process in your part's flow is performed by an appropriately accredited supplier and whether the lead shop manages that chain competently. A machining shop that performs welding in house, by contrast, would itself need NADCAP welding accreditation if the part requires it.
NADCAP is managed by the Performance Review Institute through the eAuditNet system, which lets you confirm a supplier's accreditation status and the specific processes and methods covered. The critical point is that accreditation is process-specific and even method-specific, a supplier accredited for one type of nondestructive testing may not be accredited for the method your drawing requires, and a heat treater accredited for one process may not cover another. When sourcing aerospace work in Burlington, ask the lead shop to identify every special-process supplier in your part's flow, then confirm through eAuditNet that each holds current accreditation for the exact process and method your drawing specifies. Don't accept NADCAP in general as sufficient. Also confirm the accreditation is current rather than lapsed, since accreditation must be maintained through periodic re-audit. This verification protects you from the most common failure mode, a part flowing through a supplier that holds NADCAP but for a different process than your part actually needs, a gap that often goes unnoticed until a customer or regulatory audit surfaces it.
The special processes that most often require NADCAP are heat treatment, welding, nondestructive testing, chemical processing including passivation and etching, coatings and surface treatments such as plating and anodizing, and materials testing. These share a defining trait: their quality cannot be confirmed by inspecting or measuring the finished part. You can't see proper metallurgical structure from a heat treat, confirm internal weld soundness with a caliper, or verify restored corrosion resistance from passivation by looking at the surface. Because the quality is locked into the process rather than visible in the result, NADCAP audits the process control itself. For a Burlington aerospace part, map which of these your drawing calls out and confirm each is routed to an appropriately accredited supplier. Machining shops in the Triad rarely perform these in house, so most aerospace parts pass through a chain of external special-process providers. Identifying which processes your specific part requires, and confirming the accreditation for each, is the core of NADCAP-related due diligence when sourcing flight or defense hardware in the region.
Every special process in your part's flow should generate a certification tied to the lot that flows back into your traceability package. For heat treatment, expect a cert showing the process parameters and conformance to the specified specification. For nondestructive testing, expect the inspection record and the certification of the qualified inspector who performed it. For chemical processing and coatings, expect certs confirming the process met the controlling specification, including details like coating thickness class where relevant. These certifications are not optional, they are how you prove a special process was performed correctly when the result can't be verified on the part itself. A capable Burlington lead supplier consolidates all of them alongside the machining inspection results and material certs into one complete package. Critically, confirm each cert references the specific specification your drawing calls out, since a process performed to the wrong spec or wrong class can pass a generic cert while still being nonconforming to your actual requirement. On flight hardware, a missing or mismatched special-process cert means conformance can't be fully demonstrated, which is a serious gap.
AS9100 and NADCAP work together but cover different things. AS9100 is the aerospace quality management system standard that governs how a shop runs its overall operation, document control, traceability, first-article inspection, corrective action, and the management of subcontracted special processes. NADCAP accredits the specific special processes themselves to consistent aerospace standards. For a Burlington aerospace part, you typically want the lead machining shop operating under AS9100, with the special processes in the part's flow performed by NADCAP-accredited suppliers. AS9100 requires the shop to control its special-process subcontractors, and NADCAP is the mechanism that demonstrates those subcontractors' processes are genuinely under control. So the two are complementary: AS9100 ensures the system managing the part is sound, and NADCAP ensures the special processes that can't be verified by inspection are properly accredited. When sourcing in the Triad, verify both, the AS9100 certificate and scope of the lead shop through OASIS, and the NADCAP accreditation of each special-process supplier through eAuditNet, to confirm the complete chain meets aerospace requirements.
Last updated: August 2026
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