A first article inspection (FAI) isn’t a measurement report. It’s a traceability report. The dimensions are 30% of it. Form 1 (part identification) and Form 2 (material/process identification) are where most FAIs fail.
The three forms
- Form 1 — part number, revision, serial, drawing rev, FAI reason
- Form 2 — every material lot, every process certification (heat treat, plating, NDT)
- Form 3 — every characteristic on the drawing, ballooned and measured
The most common rejection
Missing balloons. Form 3 must have every dimension and note from the drawing accounted for — including notes like “break sharp edges” or “remove burrs.” Skip one and the whole package comes back.
Use a balloon-numbering tool that exports directly to Form 3 column 5. Manually transcribing 200 dimensions is how transcription errors enter.