One of the most important assessments you can make when designing a new part is the first article inspection. It looks at a product's design and compares it with the actual product that came from manufacturing. You can succeed with first article inspections by taking these measures.

Make Sure the Right Aspects are Examined

First article inspections can play out in a number of ways depending on the part that was made and its particular attributes. You thus need to make sure your FAI (first article inspection) is set up appropriately in the beginning and subsequently assesses the right things.

It might be the distance between two holes, the edge quality that's achieved, or the overall thickness of the part. It just depends on how you're planning to make a specific part based on your preferences or those from a client. Once you verify the right things are examined, you can carry out FAI with a lot more success and direction.

Verify Designs are Complete

Before you get started with a first article inspection for a new part, you want to make sure you have all of your part designs completely finished. Then you'll have something to compare throughout the FAI and then make meaningful adjustments to the part if it's necessary.

If you're making a part of your own accord, make sure all relevant design details are ironed out. Things like dimensions, shapes, and other key features will be important to refine. Whereas if this part is being made for a client, gather their design plans and verify their completeness before starting an FAI.

Learn How to Interpret FAI Reports

It's often best to have an FAI conducted by a licensed and experienced company because then, you can make sure the reports at the end will be thorough and meaningful to your part development moving forward. You just want to find out how to interpret FAI reports before they're officially given to you by the inspection company.

Go over things like these reports' format, special terminology, relevant findings, and other specification information. Getting familiar with these elements before an FAI is conducted will make it much easier to go over the results with the company that performs the inspection during the final production run.

If you want to make sure your new part's FAI is executed correctly, focus on getting your plans together and preparing for this entire process. Then when the FAI starts, you'll be ready for anything.