Quality Inspection Report

Every order is inspected and recorded before it ships. Documentation is supplied on request — tell us what you need and it will be prepared with your order.

What is checked, and how often, is set for each project during our Quality Control Process. The documents below are what that work produces.

Some of these documents are issued by Apporo. Others are issued by the supplier that provided the material, or by the subcontractor that carried out a process. The table shows which is which.

Tell us what you need when you place the order and it will be ready to travel with the shipment.

Two records are produced as a matter of course, whether or not you ask for them.

Dimensional inspection

Before a batch ships, a sample of three to five pieces is taken. On each sampled piece, every dimension on the drawing is measured — the full set, not a short list of key features. The equipment used is listed on our Inspection Equipment page.

First article inspection

When a part is made for the first time, a first article is measured and approved before the run continues. If you want to approve the first article yourself, say so at order stage and it will be sent to you for sign-off before production proceeds.

Material certification is issued by the supplier that provided the material and passed to you. It identifies the grade and the lot the material came from, and it is the document that ties the material in your part back to a mill that produced it.

Ask for it when you place the order rather than afterwards. Material is often drawn from stock, and matching a certificate to the exact lot used is straightforward before the job runs and awkward once the parts are boxed.

The dimensional inspection report is the measured record for your batch, written up from the sampled pieces. It lists each dimension on the drawing with its specified value, tolerance and the figure actually measured.

Where the report needs to tie line by line to the print, it is issued together with a ballooned drawing so that every row points to a numbered feature.

A ballooned drawing numbers every dimension on the print, so that each line of the inspection report ties back to one specific feature. Without it, a report with, say, fifty measurements and a drawing with fifty dimensions have to be matched up by eye.

Ballooning is manual work and is prepared on request. Let us know when you place the order so that it is ready alongside the inspection report.

RoHS and REACH declarations are supplied on request. They are issued by the supplier that provided the material and, where a surface finish is applied, by the finishing subcontractor, and are passed to you as issued.

Where a part is heat treated or plated, the report is issued by the subcontractor that carried out the process and covers that process only.

• Heat treatment report — the treatment applied and the resulting condition, as reported by the subcontractor. Hardness can also be checked in-house where required; see Inspection Equipment.
• Plating report — the coating applied and its thickness.

Tell us what you need with your RFQ or your order:

• which documents are required
• whether they must arrive with the goods or can follow
• any format your own quality system requires

If you are not sure what to ask for, send the drawing and the end market, and we will tell you which documents are normally expected for that combination.