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AS9100 7.1.5.2 Measurement Tracability

Discussion in 'AS 91XX - Aerospace Quality Standards' started by Laura N., Feb 28, 2020.

  1. Laura N.

    Laura N. Member

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    Question regarding calibration - this is kind of a long lead in, thank you for reading until the end. o_O
    We are a small machine shop currently working towards our AS9100 certification. We are 10-12 employees, we have a consultant who is assisting, I was hired to help with this my experience is with ISO 9001 and I was asked to basically be the interpreter, to help the company understand while keeping our certification as simple as possible. The goal is to be able to provide services to new company's, some of which could include aerospace.
    The company has always been meticulous with tracking of material, processes, inspection and all of there processes so my job has been pretty basic to document what they do. Every part is released, every job has first article inspection that is documented, when job is complete every part is inspected through our inspection department, that inspection is documented with material certs and outside process certs, all this is documented and sent with each part.
    We have had our standards sent out and outside calibrated now we need to calibrate our inspection tools. My question is if we are calibrating all of our inspection tools, even our 2 CMM's are outside calibrated do we need to track/calibrate each individual operators tools? Can we mark them as reference since nothing leaves the company without going through our inspection department?
    Thank you in advance! :D
     
    Laura N., Feb 28, 2020
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  2. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    Welcome Laura:

    Firstly, NEVER, EVER mark an item of equipment "for reference only". It's a trap! It's either, "Not Controlled", or "Calibrated", "Calibrate Before Use" or "Verify Before Use" etc. Here's why:

    Operators constantly "reference" (read) their measuring devices. To use the warning "For Reference Only" is a non sequitur. Of course, in using the equipment, the question then becomes, "do you need to trust the reading?"

    Your answer is going to be "Of course" - or the operator risks having their parts rejected by QC (or worse, the customer), therefore some form of verification is going to be required - calibration is simply a "super" verification, after all.

    Put in a program of verification before use and have your operators record that, then have the master gauges they used to verify their equipment calibrated by a trusted lab.
     
    Andy Nichols, Feb 28, 2020
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  3. Laura N.

    Laura N. Member

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    Thank you for correcting my terminology, I am showing my ISO age I think.

    Could you please expand on what you said here? Would First Article inspection be verification?
     
    Laura N., Feb 28, 2020
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  4. Andy Nichols

    Andy Nichols Moderator Staff Member

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    Nah! Many places do similar things...

    Happy to help. I encounter this situation regularly. The FAIR is the results (data) from inspections of the part(s). You generate this report, want to use equipment which is either calibrated - or verified - with traceability to a standard, to avoid a rejection from a customer. If both parties use equipment which is calibrated/verified to standards traceable to NIST/UKAS etc, then - within the limits of uncertainty, the measurement results should give almost identical results, right?

    Now, if your machinists/operators have a selection of equipment to use (their own, your organization's or a mix) to make measurements, then how will you know - in the event of a customer rejection - which specific equipment was used on a feature? I encourage clients to have their OPs records the results of their verifications on the Shop Order/Traveler/Job ticket which accompanies the parts. They know who was assigned to the job, but need a record of which equipment was used and the data from the measuring equipment which was also used.

    Hope this helps.
     
    Andy Nichols, Feb 28, 2020
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    Laura N. likes this.