🔥 NADCAP
NADCAP-Accredited Special Process Suppliers for Eugene, OR
NADCAP accreditation is what aerospace and defense primes demand for special processes, the heat treating, welding, nondestructive testing, chemical processing, and coatings whose quality can't be confirmed by simply measuring the finished part. Around Eugene, where precision machine shops feed heavy-equipment, aerospace, and renewable-energy customers, NADCAP work usually means pairing locally machined parts with accredited processors whose special-process controls have been audited against demanding industry-consensus standards. This page explains how NADCAP differs from a shop-wide quality certification, how to verify accreditation, and how Eugene buyers manage the special-process supply chain.
NADCAPAS9100ISO 9001
NADCAP, the National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program, exists to solve a specific problem: special processes produce characteristics you can't fully verify after the fact. You can't measure your way to confidence that a heat-treated part reached the right metallurgical structure throughout, or that a weld is sound below the surface, or that an anodize layer was deposited correctly. So instead of accrediting a company's overall quality system, NADCAP audits the actual process, the equipment, the parameters, the operator qualifications, the pyrometry, the chemistry, against rigorous industry-consensus checklists.
That process-specific focus is the core thing a buyer must understand. A processor accredited for heat treating is not automatically accredited for welding or NDT, and a shop accredited for one NDT method like penetrant inspection may not be accredited for radiography or ultrasonics. Each accreditation is narrow and granular. When a prime flows down a NADCAP requirement, it's specifying that a particular process step be performed by a source whose handling of that exact process has been independently audited and found conforming.
For Eugene-area sourcing, this means NADCAP rarely applies to the machine shop cutting your part, it applies to the processors performing the special steps. Your precision machinist in the Willamette Valley may hold AS9100 for machining and assembly, while the heat treat, plating, or NDT on those parts must route to NADCAP-accredited sources. Understanding that division is the starting point for managing the whole supply chain.
Verifying NADCAP Accreditation in eAuditNet
NADCAP verification is unusually clean because there's an authoritative public source: eAuditNet, the database operated by the Performance Review Institute that administers NADCAP. Every accredited supplier and every accredited special process is listed there with its current accreditation status, the specific commodities and processes covered, and the accreditation's validity. Before you route any special-process work, look the processor up in eAuditNet and confirm the exact process you need is within its active accreditation.
The granularity of the listing is where buyers must pay attention. eAuditNet doesn't just say a supplier is NADCAP-accredited, it specifies the accredited processes and often the sub-processes and customer approvals. A supplier accredited for chemical processing may be accredited for anodizing but not passivation, or for certain alloys but not others. Match the listing precisely against your part's requirement and your prime's flow-down, because a near-miss in scope means the part won't carry the pedigree your customer expects.
Keep in mind that many primes maintain their own additional approvals on top of NADCAP. A processor may be NADCAP-accredited and still need a specific prime's customer approval for your particular program. When you verify in eAuditNet, also confirm with your customer whether their flow-down requires both the NADCAP accreditation and a named approval. Doing this verification before you place the work prevents the expensive scenario of finishing a part only to learn the special process wasn't performed by a qualifying source.
Documentation and Metallurgical Records to Demand
Special-process documentation goes deeper than a typical inspection report because the whole point of NADCAP is to control characteristics you can't inspect afterward. For heat treating, expect certifications that record the actual process parameters, time, temperature, atmosphere, and that reference the controlling specification, along with hardness or other property results where applicable. The processor's pyrometry and furnace calibration discipline is exactly what NADCAP audits, and the certification is your evidence the part was processed correctly.
For welding, you want evidence the work followed a qualified procedure performed by qualified personnel, with weld records and, where required, the results of nondestructive testing on the welds. For NDT itself, the documentation should identify the method, the qualified inspector, the technique used, and the disposition. For chemical processing and coatings, expect records tying the part to the controlling spec, the chemistry, and the coating thickness or other measured outcomes. Each of these ties back to a specification number your prime called out, so confirm the records reference the right one.
Material traceability threads through all of it. The special-process records should connect to the part's material certifications and heat number so the full pedigree, from raw stock through every special process, holds together. Before releasing work, agree on exactly which special-process certifications you'll receive and confirm they reference your specifications. In aerospace and defense, an incomplete or mismatched special-process record can invalidate the part as surely as a dimensional defect, so treat this documentation as a hard requirement.
Frequently Asked Questions
Usually not, because NADCAP accredits special processes rather than machining itself. The precision machine shop cutting your aerospace or defense part typically holds AS9100 for its machining and assembly operations, not NADCAP. NADCAP applies to the special processes performed on those parts, heat treating, welding, nondestructive testing, chemical processing, coatings, where the resulting quality can't be confirmed by measuring the finished part. So when a prime flows down a NADCAP requirement, it's almost always pointing at those special-process steps, which a Eugene machinist generally subcontracts to outside processors. What your machine shop does need is the discipline to route those steps only to properly accredited sources and to manage and document that flow-down under its own AS9100 system. When you qualify a local supplier, the right question isn't usually whether the machine shop holds NADCAP, it's whether the shop reliably sends your heat treat, finishing, and NDT to NADCAP-accredited processors with the correct scope, and whether it controls and documents those subcontracted steps properly. The exception is a shop that performs a special process in-house, for example an in-house heat treat or welding operation feeding aerospace work, in which case that specific process would need its own NADCAP accreditation. Verify based on who actually performs each step.
Use eAuditNet, the authoritative public database run by the Performance Review Institute, which administers NADCAP. Every accredited supplier and every accredited special process is listed there with its current status, the specific commodities and processes covered, and validity dates. Look up the processor and confirm the exact process you need falls within its active accreditation, paying close attention to granularity, because NADCAP accreditations are narrow and process-specific. A supplier accredited for heat treating is not automatically accredited for welding or NDT, and within a category like chemical processing, a source might be accredited for anodizing but not passivation, or for some alloys but not others. Match the eAuditNet listing precisely against your part's requirement and your prime's flow-down specification. There's an additional layer to check: many primes maintain their own customer approvals on top of the base NADCAP accreditation, so a processor may be NADCAP-accredited yet still need a specific named approval for your program. Confirm with your customer whether their flow-down requires both. Doing this verification before you place the special-process work is essential, because discovering after the fact that a heat treat or NDT step was performed by a source outside the required scope can invalidate the part and force expensive rework or rejection.
NADCAP-accredited special processing tends to concentrate in larger metropolitan areas with denser aerospace and defense ecosystems, and Eugene's manufacturing identity centers on timber products, recreational vehicles, heavy equipment, and clean technology rather than aerospace. The southern Willamette Valley has strong precision machining and fabrication talent, which serves aerospace work well at the machining stage, but the specialized accredited processors for heat treat, plating, NDT, and coatings are fewer locally and often sit in or beyond Portland and other larger metros. That means sourcing NADCAP work around Eugene usually involves coordinating locally machined parts with accredited processors elsewhere, which adds transit time and additional handoffs to the supply chain. The practical implication for a buyer is that the special-process routing, where each step goes and how long it queues at each accredited source, is frequently the longest and most variable part of the lead time. When you plan a NADCAP-dependent part, map the full routing early, identify which accredited processors handle each step, and build their transit and queue time into your schedule. A capable Eugene machine shop will have established relationships with accredited processors and can manage this routing, but you should understand and verify it rather than assume the special processes are available next door.
For heat treating, the certification you receive should document the actual process performed against the controlling specification your prime called out, not just a pass-fail stamp. Expect records that capture the process parameters, the time, temperature, and atmosphere of the cycle, along with the specification number governing the treatment, and where applicable the resulting mechanical property data such as hardness, tensile, or other measured outcomes. The reason this depth matters is that heat treatment alters the metallurgical structure of the part throughout its volume, and you cannot confirm a correct result by inspecting the finished surface. That's precisely why NADCAP audits the processor's pyrometry, furnace calibration, and parameter control so rigorously. The certification is your evidence that the furnace was within calibration, the cycle ran to the required parameters, and the part achieved the intended properties. The heat-treat records should also tie back to the part's material certifications and heat number so the full pedigree holds together from raw stock through processing. Before you release the work, agree on exactly which certifications you'll receive and confirm they reference the correct specification, because in aerospace and defense an incomplete or mismatched heat-treat record can invalidate the part as surely as a dimensional defect. Treat these metallurgical records as a non-negotiable part of the deliverable.
The cleanest approach is to let a single AS9100 prime machine shop own the routing and manage the special processes as controlled subcontracted steps, rather than coordinating each accredited processor yourself. A capable Eugene machine shop typically machines the part in-house, then routes heat treat, finishing, NDT, and coatings to NADCAP-accredited sources with which it has established relationships, controlling and documenting each handoff under its own quality system. This keeps the traceability intact and gives you one accountable supplier for the finished part with a complete data package. When you set this up, confirm a few things up front: which special processes the part requires, which accredited processor handles each one and whether their eAuditNet scope matches your requirement, and how the routing affects total lead time, since the offsite special processes are usually the longest and most variable portion. Also confirm how the shop maintains traceability across all the handoffs so the final part carries a continuous pedigree from raw material through every special process. If your program requires specific prime customer approvals on top of NADCAP accreditation, verify those too. The advantage of sourcing the machining locally in Eugene is responsiveness and easier auditing of the prime, while the special processes route to accredited sources wherever they're available. Manage the special-process routing deliberately, because it's where both schedule and compliance risk concentrate.
Last updated: July 2026
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