Industry Compliance · 5 min read
Nadcap and Calibration: What Suppliers Need to Know
Nadcap raises the bar on special processes in aerospace, and calibration runs through all of it: if you cannot trust the instrument that measured the process, you cannot trust the process.
Part of our guide to Industry Compliance & Calibration.
Where calibration fits in Nadcap
Nadcap accredits special processes — heat treating, NDT, chemical processing, coatings, and more — through industry-managed audits. Each of those processes relies on measurements: temperature uniformity, pressure, hardness, dimensional checks. Nadcap audit criteria expect the equipment making those measurements to be calibrated with traceability and controlled like any other monitoring and measuring resource.
What auditors expect
Expect scrutiny of traceability, calibration intervals and their justification, out-of-tolerance handling, and — for thermal processing — instrumentation calibrated to the relevant pyrometry requirements (e.g., AMS2750 for heat treat). Using an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited calibration supplier whose scope covers your parameters removes a whole category of audit questions about supplier competence.
Common questions
Does Nadcap require ISO 17025 accredited calibration?
Nadcap audit criteria emphasize traceable, controlled calibration; in practice accredited calibration is the straightforward way to demonstrate supplier competence for the measurements behind a special process. Confirm the specifics in the relevant Nadcap checklist and your prime’s flow-downs.