Specialist manufacturer Superior Tube was awarded three prestigious National Aerospace and Defence Contractors’ Accreditation Program (Nadcap) reaccreditations for its heat treating, welding, and non-destructive testing programmes.

Nadcap assesses and supplies independent accreditation of specialist

manufacturing processes and products to companies operating in the aerospace and defence sectors, explains Superior Tube quality manager Scott Bussinger.

He adds that, Superior Tube received the sought-after certifications after a series of highly exacting audits designed to test every aspect of each process under scrutiny.

The company received the reaccreditation for a number of years now, resulting in the reauditing schedule being extended to one-and-a-half years, rather than the standard one-year renewal process.

“We are proud to receive this ‘hat-trick’ of prestigious Nadcap reaccreditations, which provide industry-wide confirmation of the quality and integrity of our manufacturing processes.

“We look forward to working closely with Nadcap this year and in the future,” says Bussinger.

He explains that the Nadcap auditing process includes elements such as pyrometry and heat treatment controls, ultrasonic testing/personnel controls, mechanical testing specimen preparation, metallurgical evaluation, microstructure examination, and elemental analysis.

Root cause analysis and reports are prepared for any findings and results which are submitted for approval to the Nadcap panel.

Nadcap was established in 1990 to develop and monitor an industry-wide set of criteria, providing independent certification of conformity across a range of special processes in the aerospace and defence sectors.

In addition, the Superior Tube quality team has also recently achieved renewal certification for ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100D, valid for the manufacture of small-diameter, cold drawn specialty tubing in multiple alloys.

Superior Tube is one of five business units comprising of manufacturer AMETEK SMP, together presenting a global force in the manufacturing of advanced metallurgical products for specialist applications across a range of sectors.