I recently attended the annual NADCAP meeting held in Pittsburgh, PA. For readers who don’t know, NADCAP, the National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program, is a cooperative effort spearheaded by the Performance Review Institute (PRI) to improve quality and reduce costs throughout the aerospace and defense industries. It’s an initiative that manufacturers of aerospace composites know very well.
I was impressed by the knowledge of the attendees and their dedication to improving industry standards and requirements. There are very few passive participants at a NADCAP meeting, everyone in attendance brings expertise from their particular field and provides valuable input on agenda topics.
Of particular note during the “Composite Task Group” sessions was a discussion on applying AMS2750E to autoclave and oven temperature surveys and developing an appropriate NADCAP audit checklist. This topic is very relevant to manufacturers of composite parts who must insure part quality as they flow-down global standards into an ever expanding international outsourced composite part manufacturing community.
