First Article Inspection that qualifies the part.
First Article Inspection is the bridge between an approved drawing and a qualified production process. We document the part the way procurement teams need to qualify their supplier.
How a first article is run.
Step 01
Plan
Inspection plan built from drawing GD&T and customer requirements.
Step 02
Manufacture
First article produced with documented setup and tooling.
Step 03
Verify
Dimensional verification on Zeiss CMM, Faro arm, or comparator as appropriate.
Step 04
Document
FAI report with measurement results, material certs, and CoC on request.
Step 05
Approve
Submitted to customer for sign-off before production release.
What's included in the FAI package.
- AS9102-style FAI report (Forms 1–3 as applicable)
- Dimensional measurement results
- Material certifications and traceability
- Certificate of Conformance
- CMM raw data on request
FAI FAQs
The questions engineering and procurement teams ask most often before a first quote.
Do you provide AS9102 FAIs?
Yes. We provide AS9102-format First Article Inspection documentation, and Northline maintains an AS9100D quality system alongside ISO 9001:2015 certification.
What's the lead time on a first article?
Lead time depends on the part — discuss expectations at the RFQ stage. We plan FAIs as part of the production schedule.
Can you do FAIs on customer-supplied parts?
We focus on FAIs for parts we manufacture. Third-party inspection is outside our standard scope.
Have a part ready for review?
Upload your CAD files or drawings and our engineering team will review the project requirements.