First article inspection: the dimensional evidence, without the retyping
A first article inspection stands or falls on characteristic accountability: every dimension on the drawing must be ballooned, listed, measured and traced. On an aerospace print that means hundreds of characteristics — and the preparation alone can eat a full day.
Asterion Report automates that preparation: the drawing is ballooned from the PDF, every characteristic gets its numbered row with nominal and tolerance, and measured results are recorded and signed against each one.
What Report covers in an FAI package
Report focuses on the dimensional core of the FAI: the ballooned drawing and the measured-results table — the characteristic-by-characteristic evidence that AS9102 Form 3 requires. Nominals, tolerances and GD&T come from the print; results, instruments and operator sign-offs are captured per characteristic.
It does not pretend to be your whole AS9102 binder: material certs and process forms stay in your quality system. What it removes is the longest, most error-prone part — building and filling the characteristic list.
- Complete ballooning from the drawing PDF, zone by zone
- Numbered characteristics with nominal, tolerance and GD&T
- Measured values with per-characteristic operator signature
- Revision change? Re-extract and compare instead of renumbering by hand
What AS9102 actually asks for, in plain terms
AS9102 structures a first article inspection around three forms. Form 1 identifies the part and its configuration. Form 2 accounts for materials and special processes. Form 3 — the long one — lists every design characteristic with its requirement and its measured result. The standard’s core rule is full accountability: one hundred percent of the characteristics on the drawing, not a sample.
That is why the preparation is so expensive by hand: someone must find, number and transcribe every dimension, tolerance and GD&T frame before a single part is measured. And a first article is redone whenever the design, the process or the supplier changes — the cost is recurring, not one-time. Automating the ballooning and the characteristic list attacks precisely the recurring part.
Why shops around Montreal care
Greater Montreal is an aerospace cluster: subcontractors inherit FAI requirements from primes whether they are AS9100 certified or not. For a 30-person shop, a day of engineering time per first article is real money. Cutting the preparation from hours to minutes changes the economics of taking on aerospace work.
Data is hosted in Montreal, Canada. Unlimited users, free 60-day trial.