Major composites suppliers gain Nadcap accreditation

 

Park Electrochemical Corp. (Melville, N.Y.) announced on Sept. 16 that its wholly owned subsidiary, Park Aircraft Technologies Corp. (PATC), has received accreditation by Nadcap (formerly National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program, NADCAP) for Non-Metallic Materials Manufacturing (NMMM). PATC is the first U.S.-based supplier, and one of only two companies in the world, to receive this Nadcap accreditation.

Park’s announcement was preceded, on Sept. 12, by a report from Advanced Composites Group Ltd. (ACG, Heanor, Derbyshire, U.K.) that it was granted Nadcap approval for composite prepreg manufacture (to AC 7124 and AC 7122R). This accreditation followed on the heels of another achievement: ACG recently became the first prepreg material supplier to attain ISO/TS16949 certification for its business activities in the automotive industry. The Nadcap accreditation, gained with support from both Airbus (Toulouse, France) and BAE Systems (London, U.K.), is in addition to the company’s existing AS9100 aerospace certification. ACG also is certificated for general operations activities in accord with ISO 9001 standards.

Created in 1990 by SAE Inc., Nadcap is administered by the not-for-profit Performance Review Institute (PRI), which exists to advance the interests of the mobility and related industries through development of performance standards and administration of quality assurance, accreditation and certification programs.