WHAT IS A FIRST ARTICLE INSPECTION?
First Article Inspection (FAI) is an authentication method for a manufacturing process. It is a detailed verification and comparison of the product design to the manufactured part. First articles are conducted on detailed, assembly, and sub-assembly parts.
WHAT IS A FIRST ARTICLE INSPECTION REPORT FOR CREO?
A First Article Inspection Report (FAIR) is the documentation of the FAI that includes the dimensional data of a part in comparison to the design specifications.
ETRAGE’s First Article Inspection Report for Creo is a software program for manufacturers developed for Creo that automatically collects, manages, and documents inspection characteristics from the CAD system for use in the inspection process.
Companies can now automate reports for their first article inspection process directly from Creo. Directly from the Creo CAD interface, designers and quality managers can now accomplish a host of tasks required for inspection documentation including:
- Sequential tagging of dimensions.
- Customized MS Excel Reports
- Populate MS Excel with tags, related dimensions, and tolerances
- Auto-calculate dimension range based on tolerance
- Software searches drawing and automatically all inspection characteristics
- Creates PDF of drawing with unique mark numbers and inspection characteristics
- Creates drawing table containing inspection data
- Compatible with Creo 2.0 and later versions
WHAT’S THE PURPOSE OF A FIRST ARTICLE INSPECTION REPORT?
- Provide objective confirmation that all engineering design and specification requirements are understood, accounted for, verified, and documented.
- Verify the accuracy of part drawings, making sure all changes made to part designs are included.
- Ensure the manufacturing process is reliable, repeatable, and consistent.
- Validate the tooling used to produce a part and ensure the tools ability to produce parts at the required specification.
- Ensure the manufacturing process is capable and can meet the needs of production.
WHAT ARE DIFFERENT KINDS OF FIRST ARTICLE INSPECTION REPORTS?
There are two different types of first articles:
1. Full or Standard First Article Inspection
2. Partial First Article Inspection or Delta FAI
A Partial FAI/Delta FAI is conducted when isolated changes are made. Such as drawing changes after a change in the part design, or if a previous FAIR recorded nonconformance of characteristics.
Companies using ETRAGE’s First Article Inspection Report for Creo have experienced up to 85% time savings compared to common, manual processes for inspection reports. In addition to these streamlined capabilities users will experience:
- Ease-of-use and ease-of-training
- Removal of manual data entry mistakes from the process
- Removes time consuming tasks