Hardware (Such as Rivets and Bolts) - Chemical and Physical Test Reports

[Eotfofyl]

Upper management has recently made the decision in the company where i work that chemical and physical test reports are no longer required from our hardware suppliers. I have worked here for years and it has laways been a show stopper if you will, in that if a supplier could not provide test reports then we would not receive the product. All of a sudden the rules have changed so I wondered if anyone had any advice for me. Is this a common practice? Where we just being too picky before?

We are AS9100 and manufacture minor and major assemblies for many primes in the aerospace industry. We are also nadcap accredited for multiple masteries.

I look forward to your replies.

 

[andygr]

Have you ever received a test report that showed noncompliance? Is it really providing a value to you or your customers?

In my opinion the important thing is to make sure the buyers are not gettting items from the grey market.
For Boeing it is covered here
https://active.boeing.com/doingbiz/d14426/bfmanuf.cfm?Type_cd=F

The cert you receive should identify the lot you received and it will allow you to trace down the food chain if needed.
At the most every time you review the supplier for reapproving them you can exercize the traceability verification process.

 

[Wes Bucey]

Are the rivets and bolts "off the shelf" or custom made to your company's specifications?

If off the shelf, odds are the lots are mixed and traceability would be a difficult task. Thus, you have to count on the preponderance of evidence:

1. are a lot of customers buying the same products from this supplier?
2. has any one of those buyers continued the practice your company had of requiring physical and chemical test results?
3. are there any tales (factual or anecdotal) of field failures?
4. your conclusions after observing (in a visit to supplier) whether there appear to be sufficient processes and controls in place to assure raw materials come from a known reliable source (not purchased from other company overstocks)
5. results of random tests your company or 3rd party perform on samples after receipt

If the products are custom made to your specifications, the very least you should do is require traceability of raw material from the mill to finished production at the supplier (not separate tests of each lot) PLUS a sample "coupon" (a length of the bar stock before processing) which is held in inventory and may (not every time) be submitted to an independent lab for chemical analysis and physical testing. Either your company or the supplier would hold the clearly identified and segregated coupons.


I ran a high tech contract machining company for ten years, all products made to a customer's specifications. We routinely :ca: by cutting "coupons" of each material lot and required traceability of every material delivery back to the mill. Our contracts with customers spelled out this process and offered to submit such tagged [engraved] coupons for testing at any time for such tests as a customer might require. The very fact we set up such a system allayed fears and suspicions of customers BEFORE they arose and we never had such a request. As a result, we shaved time from order to delivery by eliminating routine and redundant tests. In my opinion, the bosses at your company are on the right track, but maybe the "switches" need to be lubricated a little by documenting the processes the supplier uses to assure no nonconforming material can slip into the finished product.

Similarly, when heat treating of product was required, we also had coupons heat treated simultaneously with product in the event destructive testing might be required to determine material properties.

 

[Eotfofyl]

So, we were in fact too picky unless i can find a specific requirement flowed down from a customer.

Yes they are off the shelf type hardware such as AN and NAS standards. Thank you for your insight.