🔥 NADCAP
NADCAP Accredited Special Process Suppliers in Florence, SC
NADCAP is the aerospace and defense industry's answer to a hard problem: special processes like heat treatment, welding, and nondestructive testing alter a part in ways that final inspection often cannot fully verify, so the process itself must be audited to a stringent, process-specific standard. In Florence, where welding-fabrication and finishing capabilities grew up serving automotive and heavy-equipment work, NADCAP accreditation distinguishes the special-process sources qualified for flight and defense hardware. This page covers what NADCAP actually accredits, how to read accreditation scope correctly, and the metallurgical records a buyer must demand.
NADCAPAS9100
NADCAP, the National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program, does not accredit a company broadly. It accredits specific special processes against detailed, industry-written checklists. Heat treatment, welding, nondestructive testing, chemical processing, surface enhancement, materials testing, and coatings each have their own audit criteria. A supplier is accredited for the precise processes it passed, not for everything it does.
This process-by-process structure is why NADCAP exists separately from AS9100. A quality management system certification tells you the shop runs disciplined processes generally. NADCAP tells you that a particular special process, performed to particular parameters, was audited by metallurgical experts and meets aerospace and defense requirements. For special processes whose results are buried inside the part, such as the grain structure produced by a heat treat cycle or the soundness of a weld, that process-level assurance is the only practical safeguard.
For Florence buyers, the relevance is direct. The region has real depth in welding-fabrication and finishing for industrial customers. NADCAP accreditation is what elevates a subset of those capabilities to the level aerospace and defense programs require, and it is the credential to look for when your part's special processes must meet flight-hardware standards.
Reading Accreditation Scope So You Don't Get Burned
The single most common NADCAP mistake buyers make is treating accreditation as a yes-or-no flag rather than reading the scope. A Florence supplier accredited for welding is accredited for specific welding methods, materials, and possibly specific specifications. Accreditation for one process category says nothing about another. A shop with NADCAP heat treat does not thereby have NADCAP NDT, and a shop accredited for one welding process may not be accredited for the one your drawing calls out.
NADCAP accreditations and supplier status are tracked through eAuditNet, the Performance Review Institute's system, which is where prime contractors confirm a supplier's current accreditations and scope. Use it to verify the specific process, the relevant specifications, and that the accreditation is active. Pay attention to merit status and audit cycle, because accreditation must be maintained through recurring audits and can lapse.
The practical discipline is to map your part's special-process requirements line by line against the supplier's actual NADCAP scope. If a process your drawing requires falls outside the accreditation, that work must go to an appropriately accredited source, whether that is the prime supplier or a flowed-down subcontractor. Confirming this during sourcing prevents the painful discovery of an unaccredited special process during first-article inspection.
Metallurgical Records and Process Evidence to Require
Because special processes are validated at the process level, the records that prove they were performed correctly are central. For heat treatment, expect furnace charts or recorded time-temperature profiles, pyrometry and thermocouple calibration evidence, and hardness or microstructure results that confirm the metallurgical outcome. For welding, expect qualified weld procedures and welder or operator qualifications tied to the applicable specification. For NDT, expect inspector certifications to the relevant standard and documented technique and acceptance criteria.
Material traceability underpins all of it. The records should connect the processed part back to the material lot and the specific process run, so that if a question arises you can reconstruct exactly how the part was treated. Certificates of conformance to the controlling process specification should accompany shipments, and any nonconformance should be documented with disposition and corrective action.
A capable Florence NADCAP supplier produces these records as a matter of routine rather than scrambling to assemble them. When you evaluate a supplier, ask to see a representative process record package from past work. The quality and completeness of that package tells you more about the shop's real metallurgical discipline than the accreditation certificate alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not necessarily, and this is the most important thing to verify. NADCAP accredits specific processes, not companies as a whole. A Florence supplier accredited for heat treatment is accredited only for heat treatment, and within that for specific methods and specifications. It does not automatically have accreditation for welding, nondestructive testing, plating, or other special processes your part may require. Even within a category, accreditation can be limited to particular processes or specifications, so a shop accredited for one welding method may not cover the one your drawing calls out. The correct approach is to map every special process your part requires against the supplier's actual NADCAP scope, verified through eAuditNet, line by line. Any required process that falls outside the accreditation must be performed by an appropriately accredited source, whether that is the prime supplier or a flowed-down subcontractor. Confirming this completely during sourcing avoids the costly and program-delaying discovery of an unaccredited special process during first-article inspection or, worse, after delivery.
NADCAP accreditations are tracked through eAuditNet, the system operated by the Performance Review Institute, which is the authoritative source prime contractors use to confirm a supplier's current accreditations. Look up the Florence supplier and confirm the specific process you need is accredited, that the relevant specifications are covered, and that the accreditation is currently active rather than lapsed. Pay attention to the audit cycle and any merit status, since NADCAP accreditation must be maintained through recurring audits and is not permanent. Reading the scope carefully is essential because accreditation is granted process by process and often specification by specification, so a broad claim of being NADCAP accredited tells you little until you confirm it covers your exact requirements. Beyond eAuditNet, ask the supplier for a representative process record package from past work, since the completeness of furnace charts, weld procedure qualifications, NDT certifications, and traceability records reveals the real metallurgical discipline behind the certificate. Verify both the accreditation status and the working evidence before releasing controlled work.
AS9100 and NADCAP answer different questions, and for special processes you generally need both. AS9100 certifies a supplier's overall aerospace quality management system, telling you the shop runs disciplined, traceable processes in general. It does not, however, audit the metallurgical specifics of a heat treat cycle, the soundness of a weld procedure, or the technique behind a nondestructive test. NADCAP fills that gap by auditing each special process against detailed, expert-written criteria. The reason this distinction exists is that special processes alter a part in ways final inspection cannot fully reveal: you cannot inspect the grain structure produced by a heat treat or the internal soundness of a weld by looking at the finished part, so the process itself must be controlled and audited. For aerospace and defense work, primes flow down NADCAP requirements for the relevant special processes precisely because system-level certification is not sufficient assurance. A Florence supplier serious about flight and defense hardware typically holds AS9100 for its quality system and NADCAP accreditations for the specific special processes it performs.
Florence has genuine depth in welding-fabrication, finishing, and machining, but that capability grew up primarily serving automotive and heavy-equipment customers rather than aerospace and defense. As a result, NADCAP-accredited special process sources are a deliberate subset of the local supplier base rather than the norm. The shops that have pursued NADCAP accreditation typically did so to enter aerospace or defense supply chains, and they usually pair it with AS9100 and, for controlled work, ITAR registration. For a buyer, this means you should search deliberately and verify accreditation scope rather than assuming a strong industrial finishing or welding shop can meet aerospace special-process requirements on request. The region's logistics advantage at the I-95/I-20 junction makes local sourcing attractive when a qualified supplier exists, especially for freight-sensitive processed parts. Where a specific accredited process is not represented locally, expanding the search across the Carolinas and the broader Southeast is the practical move. ManufacturingBase lets you filter by NADCAP accreditation and specific process so you can compare qualified Florence sources against regional special-process houses.
Last updated: July 2026
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