Understanding the difference between quality system certification and special process accreditation
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Do I Need NADCAP If I’m Already AS9100 Certified?
Short answer: probably — but not for the reason most people assume.
NADCAP vs AS9100 isn’t really an either/or question — it’s two different types of approval that most aerospace suppliers eventually need together.
AS9100 certifies your quality management system. Nadcap accredits specific special processes — heat treating, welding, non-destructive testing, chemical processing, and others where a finished part can look perfect and still be defective in a way no inspection will catch. One certifies how your company runs. The other certifies whether a specific process, done in a specific way, actually works.
If your shop performs any of those processes — or you outsource them to a supplier who does — being AS9100 certified doesn’t automatically cover you. Primes like Boeing, Airbus, and Rolls-Royce increasingly require Nadcap accreditation as a separate, additional condition of doing business, regardless of your QMS certification status.
I watched this play out at a contract coating facility during a Nadcap audit. The production team proudly showed off a batch of aerospace brackets that had passed thickness and adhesion testing with no issues. The paperwork told a different story. The oven chart recorder showed the programmed temperature, but nothing documented that the part itself had reached cure spec before the timer started. The thermocouple used to qualify that oven had been swapped out months earlier during routine maintenance, and nobody had updated the work instruction to match. The finish looked fine. The documentation didn’t prove the process had actually happened the way it was supposed to — and that’s what closed the audit as a finding.
AS9100 Rev D Gap Assessment Checklist: Before you add Nadcap to your roadmap, confirm your QMS foundation is solid. Run the 74-item, clause-by-clause gap check most operations managers wait too long to do →
In This Guide
- What Nadcap actually accredits — and why it’s not a QMS certification
- Why AS9100 is a prerequisite for most Nadcap accreditation paths
- A side-by-side comparison of scope, governance, and audit structure
- Which processes fall under Nadcap’s special process categories
- What auditors actually flag when process verification records fall short
- Real decision-stage guidance for suppliers at every point in the process
- Where the standards and accreditation criteria come from — and how to buy or start
Table of Contents
👉 Start Here (Top Resources)
- Buying the AS9100 standard itself: SAE AS9100 — ANSI Webstore — the current official edition, direct from ANSI’s authorized store.
- Building or tightening your QMS documentation before a Nadcap audit: 9001Simplified Documentation Kits — pre-built procedures and forms that hold up under both AS9100 and Nadcap’s quality-system scrutiny, without hiring a consultant.
- AS9100 training for your internal audit team: BSI AS9100 Training Courses — useful if you’re staffing up internal audit capability before pursuing Nadcap.
What Nadcap Actually Accredits
Nadcap — no longer written in all caps, and no longer standing for “National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program” in PRI’s own branding — is an industry-managed accreditation program administered by the Performance Review Institute (PRI). It’s governed directly by the aerospace primes that require it: Boeing, Airbus, Rolls-Royce, Honeywell, and others sit on the task groups that write and revise the audit criteria. AS9100 itself, by contrast, is published and maintained by SAE International, the aerospace industry’s standards-development body.
Here’s the distinction that trips people up: Nadcap doesn’t accredit your company. It accredits a specific process, performed a specific way, at a specific facility. If you run heat treating and chemical processing, you’d pursue separate Nadcap accreditations for each — and you wouldn’t automatically hold accreditation for a process you don’t perform. That’s fundamentally different from AS9100, which certifies your entire quality management system as one integrated audit.
The processes covered are the ones that can’t be verified by looking at the finished part. A weld can look clean and still fail. A heat-treated part can meet dimensional spec and still have the wrong microstructure. This is the same principle behind AS9100 Clause 8.5.1(f) — controlled conditions for special processes — but Nadcap goes deeper, with process-specific technical criteria that a general QMS audit isn’t built to evaluate.
What Counts as a Nadcap “Special Process”?
Nadcap organizes accreditation into roughly 17 special process categories, each governed by its own Task Group. The ones most relevant to fabrication, machining, and coatings operations include:
- Heat Treating — furnace pyrometry, controlled atmosphere, hardness verification
- Welding — fusion welding, resistance welding, brazing
- Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) — penetrant, radiographic, ultrasonic, magnetic particle
- Chemical Processing — plating, anodizing, chemical conversion coatings
- Coatings — thermal spray and other applied coatings on aerospace hardware
- Materials Testing Laboratories — mechanical and chemical test labs
- Composites — layup, curing, and bonding of composite structures
- Non-Conventional Machining — EDM, chemical milling, laser processing
- Elastomer Seals — molding and processing of seal components
- Aerospace Quality Systems (AC7004) — the QMS alternative for suppliers without AS9100
If your facility touches any of these — or you flow work down to a subcontractor who does — that’s the process that needs its own Nadcap accreditation, separate from your AS9100 certificate.
Why AS9100 Is (Usually) a Prerequisite for Nadcap
PRI requires evidence of an acceptable quality management system before granting most Nadcap accreditations. For most aerospace suppliers, AS9100 certification is the route used to satisfy that expectation. In practice, that means one of two paths:
- You already hold AS9100 certification from an accredited third-party registrar. PRI accepts this as satisfying the QMS prerequisite.
- You don’t hold AS9100 yet. PRI will assess your QMS against AC7004 — a checklist-based alternative modeled on AS9003, audited directly by PRI rather than a separate registrar. If you go this route, expect an additional day added to your special process audit, at PRI’s day rate, which typically runs higher than standard registrar pricing.
Most suppliers who already have customers in aerospace choose the first path. If you’re already pursuing AS9100 certification for other reasons — customer requirement, competitive positioning — getting it in place before you start the Nadcap process avoids paying PRI’s premium AC7004 day rate for a QMS review you’ll need anyway.
Most common finding: Suppliers who assume their AS9100 certificate alone satisfies Nadcap’s documentation expectations for a specific process. It doesn’t. Nadcap auditors expect to see process-specific records — pyrometry surveys, weld procedure qualifications, NDT technique sheets — that go well beyond what a general AS9100 surveillance audit reviews.
Nadcap vs AS9100: Side-by-Side Comparison
| Category | Nadcap | AS9100 |
|---|---|---|
| What it certifies | A specific special process (heat treat, welding, NDT, etc.) | The organization’s entire quality management system |
| Governing body | Performance Review Institute (PRI), industry task groups | Third-party registrars accredited under the IAQG scheme |
| Scope of audit | Deep, technical, process-specific criteria | Broad, system-level clauses across the organization |
| Prerequisite | AS9100 (or PRI’s AC7004 equivalent) required first | ISO 9001 QMS foundation; no prerequisite certification |
| Who mandates it | Individual primes (Boeing, Airbus, Rolls-Royce, etc.) via contract flow-down | Increasingly required across the aerospace supply chain broadly |
| Reaccreditation cycle | Typically every 12–24 months, process-dependent | Typically annual surveillance, 3-year recertification |
| Applies to | Only the processes actually performed at that facility | The entire organization as a single certified entity |
If you’re evaluating both standards side by side, buying them together through ANSI’s standards bundle is worth checking before purchasing individually — bundle pricing on standards documents tends to beat buying each one separately, and code CC2026 takes an additional 5% off through December 31, 2026.
Decision-Stage Guidance: Where Are You in This Process?
- If you are AS9100 certified and just found out a customer requires Nadcap → don’t panic and don’t assume you need to redo your QMS. Identify which specific process the customer needs accredited, pull the relevant Task Group’s audit criteria from PRI’s eAuditNet-based platform, and run a gap assessment against that specific checklist.
- If you are not yet AS9100 certified but know Nadcap is coming → get AS9100 certification moving first. Paying a registrar for AS9100 is almost always cheaper than paying PRI’s added day rate for an AC7004 QMS review layered onto your special process audit.
- If you are already Nadcap accredited for one process and adding a second → don’t assume your existing accreditation covers related work. Each process category has its own Task Group, its own audit criteria, and its own accreditation — verify the specific checklist before you commit resources.
The Objection Nobody Says Out Loud: “We Can’t Afford Two Certifications”
This is the real hesitation behind most delayed Nadcap decisions, and it’s worth addressing directly. You’re not paying for two unrelated programs. AS9100 gives you the documented QMS foundation — document control, corrective action, internal audit processes — that Nadcap auditors expect to already be in place before they even start evaluating your process-specific records. Facilities that treat AS9100 as a genuine operating system, not a binder for the auditor, spend less time and money on Nadcap corrective actions later. The two costs aren’t additive in the way they feel like they should be — a strong AS9100 implementation reduces the Nadcap audit burden.
If cost timing is the real constraint, accredit one process first — typically whichever one your highest-value customer is asking for — rather than trying to fund every applicable process category in the same audit cycle.
Quick Readiness Checklist: AS9100-to-Nadcap Transition
✅ AS9100 certificate is current and in good standing with your registrar
✅ You’ve identified every special process performed on-site or flowed down to a subcontractor
✅ You’ve pulled the specific Task Group audit criteria for each applicable process
✅ Calibration and equipment qualification records (pyrometry, thermocouples, gauges) are current and traceable
✅ Internal audits cover process-specific technical requirements, not just system-level clauses
✅ Work instructions match the actual equipment and setup currently in use — not what was documented at initial qualification
FAQ
Is Nadcap a certification or an accreditation?
It’s an accreditation, and the distinction matters. Certification typically applies to a management system (like AS9100). Accreditation applies to a specific technical process performed a specific way — Nadcap accredits your heat treating process, not your company as a whole.
Do I need AS9100 before I can get Nadcap accredited?
In most cases, yes. PRI requires evidence of an acceptable QMS before granting most Nadcap accreditations, and AS9100 certification is the route most suppliers use to satisfy that expectation. Without it, PRI will assess your QMS against AC7004 as part of the Nadcap audit, typically adding cost and time.
What is AC7004, and can I use it instead of AS9100?
AC7004 is PRI’s own checklist-based QMS assessment, based on AS9003, used when a supplier doesn’t hold AS9100. It’s audited exclusively by PRI rather than a third-party registrar, and it’s generally more expensive per day than a standard AS9100 surveillance audit.
How long does Nadcap accreditation take?
Many first-time suppliers should expect six months or longer from preparation to accreditation, with timelines varying significantly based on process scope and audit readiness.
How much does Nadcap accreditation cost?
Cost varies significantly based on the number of process categories, facility complexity, and whether you already hold AS9100. PRI provides a formal quote after you request an audit through their platform — there’s no flat published rate, since scope drives cost more than anything else.
Do Boeing, Airbus, and other primes actually require Nadcap?
For special processes, yes — it’s typically a mandatory contractual flow-down requirement, not optional best practice. If you perform heat treating, welding, NDT, or chemical processing for a prime that mandates Nadcap, AS9100 alone won’t satisfy that specific contract requirement.
Is Nadcap accreditation the same across every special process?
No. Each process category — heat treating, welding, NDT, coatings, and the rest — has its own Task Group, its own audit criteria, and its own accreditation cycle. Being accredited for one process doesn’t extend to another, even a related one.
How often do I need to renew Nadcap accreditation?
Reaccreditation audits typically happen every 12 to 24 months, depending on the process category and your audit history. Processes with a stronger track record may move to a longer reaccreditation cycle over time.
📥 Free Resources
- AS9100 Rev D Gap Assessment Checklist — a 74-item, clause-by-clause checklist for aerospace suppliers assessing their QMS before certification or a Nadcap-adjacent audit.
- ISO 9001 Roadmap — step-by-step implementation guide for manufacturers building or improving a quality management system.
- Manufacturing Compliance Checklist — practical compliance reference covering key ISO, OSHA, and quality requirements for production environments.
- Supplier Quality Checklist — evaluation tool for assessing supplier quality controls and flow-down compliance before audits or new contracts.
- ISO 13485 Gap Assessment Checklist — free checklist for medical device manufacturers assessing their QMS against ISO 13485 requirements.
Not Sure What to Do Next?
🔹 Still researching whether you need Nadcap at all? Start with What Is AS9100? to confirm your QMS foundation is understood before layering on process-specific accreditation questions.
🔹 Ready to start preparing for a Nadcap audit? Run the AS9100 Rev D Gap Assessment Checklist first — closing QMS gaps now saves you from PRI flagging system-level issues during a process-specific audit.
🔹 Need to buy the standard itself? Get the current edition of SAE AS9100 through ANSI Webstore, and check the ANSI standards bundle with code CC2026 if you’re purchasing multiple related standards at once.
Nadcap and AS9100 aren’t competing paths — they’re layered requirements, and treating them as separate line items instead of one connected system is where most suppliers lose time and money. The Standards Navigator covers both sides of aerospace compliance: the QMS foundation and the special process accreditation built on top of it.
Stop Guessing at What Your Customer Actually Requires
Suppliers who wait until a customer flow-down requirement lands in their inbox end up scrambling to figure out which Task Group criteria apply and whether their existing documentation even comes close. Suppliers who build Nadcap readiness into their AS9100 QMS from the start walk into that audit with process records already in the shape auditors expect to see.
The Standards Navigator tracks AS9100, Nadcap, and the aerospace supply chain requirements layered on top of both — so you’re not piecing this together from forum threads and PRI’s website.
👉 Get updates on AS9100 and Nadcap accreditation requirements as they develop
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