🔥 NADCAP
NADCAP Accredited Special Process Suppliers for Fort Wayne, IN
NADCAP is the accreditation that tells an aerospace buyer a special process was actually performed to the industry's consensus requirements, not just claimed to be. For Fort Wayne machine shops feeding defense electronics and aerospace programs, the heat treat, plating, welding, and nondestructive testing behind their parts almost always needs to flow to NADCAP-accredited processors. This guide explains what NADCAP covers, how its scope works, and how a buyer manages it across a northeast Indiana supply chain.
NADCAPAS9100ITAR
What NADCAP Accredits and What It Does Not
NADCAP, administered by the Performance Review Institute, accredits special processes against industry-consensus audit criteria developed by the primes and the supply base together. The defining trait of a special process is that its quality cannot be fully verified by inspecting the finished part. You cannot look at a heat-treated bracket and confirm the metallurgy is right, or inspect an anodized surface and confirm the coating chemistry; you have to trust that the process ran to specification. NADCAP exists to make that trust auditable.
Common NADCAP categories relevant to Fort Wayne supply chains include heat treatment, chemical processing and plating, welding, nondestructive testing, materials testing, and surface enhancement. Each is a separate accreditation with its own audit. What NADCAP does not do is certify a shop's overall quality system; that is AS9100's job. A buyer needs to keep these distinct: AS9100 at the manufacturer, NADCAP at each special-process supplier, working together to cover the whole part.
Why Scope Granularity Matters When You Verify
NADCAP accreditation is granular, and this is the most common place buyers get tripped up. A processor accredited for heat treatment is accredited for specific operations and specifications, not heat treat in general. A plating house accredited for one coating type and specification is not automatically accredited for the one your print calls out. Verify the accreditation covers the exact process and specification on your drawing.
NADCAP maintains the eAuditNet system, where you can confirm a supplier's accreditations, the categories they hold, and their current status. Use it. Pull up the processor your Fort Wayne machine shop intends to use and confirm the accreditation matches your requirement and is active. NADCAP audits are demanding and recurring, and accreditation status changes, so a supplier accredited last year may have a category in a different state today.
Also confirm the prime requirement. Some aerospace customers require their suppliers' special processes to be NADCAP accredited and additionally approved on the prime's own qualified processor list. Check whether your customer's flowdown adds that second layer.
Managing NADCAP Across a Fort Wayne Supply Chain
Most Fort Wayne machine shops do not perform NADCAP special processes in house; they machine the part and subcontract heat treat, plating, welding, or NDT to accredited processors, many located regionally across the Midwest. That means the buyer's NADCAP exposure usually sits one tier below the shop you contract with, and you manage it through flowdown.
The practical approach is to require your AS9100 machining supplier to flow your special-process and accreditation requirements down to their processors, to retain the processors' certifications and test reports, and to provide that documentation with the shipment. Ask to see, for a representative part, the heat treat certification, plating thickness and adhesion records, weld and welder qualification evidence, or NDT reports as applicable, each traceable to your lot.
This is also where logistics shows up. Routing parts out to regional NADCAP processors adds transit time and freight to the schedule. A Fort Wayne shop with established, nearby accredited partners and tight routing will hold lead times better than one improvising a processor each time. Ask about their standing relationships before you assume a quoted lead time is real.
Pairing NADCAP With AS9100 and ITAR for Defense Work
On defense programs tied to Fort Wayne's electronics base, NADCAP rarely stands alone. The manufacturing supplier needs AS9100 for the overall quality system, the controlled work needs ITAR registration across every party that touches technical data, and the special processes need NADCAP. A buyer is effectively orchestrating three credentials across multiple tiers, and the gap is usually at the special-process processor, where a shop assumes its plater or heat treater is covered without confirming the specific accreditation.
The cleanest way to manage this is to source the manufacturing supplier and verify they carry AS9100 plus ITAR registration, then explicitly confirm their special-process chain is NADCAP accredited to your specifications and, where required, ITAR aware. Use ManufacturingBase to identify Fort Wayne and regional suppliers by their certification stack and special-process capability so you can see the full picture before committing, rather than discovering a missing accreditation at first-article.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, the two cover entirely different ground and you typically need both. AS9100 accredits a manufacturer's overall aerospace quality management system: how the shop controls processes, manages configuration, runs first-article inspection, and maintains traceability across everything it does. NADCAP accredits individual special processes such as heat treatment, plating, welding, and nondestructive testing against industry-consensus technical criteria, because those processes produce results that cannot be verified by inspecting the finished part. A typical aerospace part flows through an AS9100 machining supplier and then to one or more NADCAP-accredited special-process houses. Neither covers the other: an AS9100 shop is not automatically qualified to perform a NADCAP special process, and a NADCAP-accredited heat treater is not running an aerospace quality system across general manufacturing. For a Fort Wayne buyer, the right mental model is AS9100 at the manufacturer plus NADCAP at each special-process supplier, working together to make the whole part traceable and compliant.
Use eAuditNet, the system the Performance Review Institute maintains for NADCAP accreditations. There you can confirm a processor's current accreditation status and the specific categories they hold, such as heat treatment, chemical processing, welding, or nondestructive testing. The critical discipline is matching the accreditation to your exact requirement, because NADCAP is granular: a processor accredited for one heat treat operation or one plating specification is not automatically accredited for the one your drawing calls out. Confirm both the category and that it covers your specification, and confirm it is currently active, since NADCAP audits are demanding and recurring and a category's status can change. If your aerospace customer flows down an additional requirement that the processor also be on the prime's own approved processor list, check that second layer separately. Because most Fort Wayne machine shops subcontract these processes, you are usually verifying a supplier one tier below the shop you contract with, so require your manufacturing supplier to provide the processor's accreditation evidence.
Most do not. The typical Fort Wayne aerospace or defense machine shop performs machining, fabrication, and assembly in house and subcontracts NADCAP special processes such as heat treatment, plating, welding, and nondestructive testing to accredited processors, many of which are located regionally across the Midwest rather than in the city itself. This is normal and not a weakness, but it shapes how you source. Your NADCAP exposure sits one tier below the shop you contract with, so you manage it through flowdown: require your AS9100 machining supplier to flow your special-process and accreditation requirements to their processors, retain the processors' certifications and test reports, and provide that documentation with each shipment. It also affects lead time, because routing parts to outside processors adds transit and freight. A shop with established, nearby accredited partners holds schedule better than one that improvises a processor each order, so ask about their standing special-process relationships before trusting a quoted lead time.
Require records traceable to your lot for every special process the part went through. For heat treatment, that means a certification stating the specification, the actual process parameters where applicable, and any required test results such as hardness. For plating and chemical processing, expect coating thickness measurements, adhesion or other required test results, and confirmation of the specification met. For welding, require evidence that the weld procedure and the welders are qualified to the applicable specification, plus any required inspection or NDT results. For nondestructive testing, require the NDT reports with the method, acceptance criteria, and the qualified inspector's results. Each of these should reference your part and lot so the special-process work is traceable to the specific units you received. Keeping these records matters because special processes are exactly the ones you cannot re-verify by looking at the finished part; if a metallurgical or coating issue surfaces later, this documentation is what lets you trace and contain it. A well-run Fort Wayne supply chain provides this as standard.
Last updated: July 2026
Find NADCAP-Certified Manufacturers in Fort Wayne, IN
Search verified Fort Wayne shops that hold NADCAP.
No logins. No email gates. Just results.