Meridian Aerostructures received its first production order for hinge fitting 8140-220 rev A from Customer A (example): 12 pieces in 7075-T7351 plate, machined on the five-axis Mill 7, anodized by Supplier F (example), with three key characteristics on the lug. The same part, record numbers and people appear in the worked examples of every tool in the kit.
Meridian Aerostructures: hinge fitting 8140-220 rev A, August to October 2026
Order review and the trigger screen (D07), August 3 to 14 PO 4501-2276: 12 pieces, first delivery October 15. The trigger screen found a full first article (a new part to us), and clause Q12 required the AS9102 first article to be submitted in the customer's portal and approved before the first shipment. FAI-26-064 was entered on the FAI plan log for September 22, S/N 001.
M. Okafor ballooned the three-sheet drawing on August 14: 64 balloons, clockwise from the title block, notes after dimensions, the convention written on the ballooned copy. The planning checks went out with owners and dates; one, customer approval of the anodizer, ran late and was closed on September 9.
Inspection plan and key characteristics (E11, D16, E07), August 21 to 24 Inspection plan IP-8140-220 rev A: 64 lines. Key characteristics: lug bore 0.5000 to 0.5010 in. (KC 1, air gauge AG-05), bore position (KC 3, CMM-01) and lug thickness 0.7480 to 0.7520 in. (KC 2, micrometer MC-22), all recorded as values on every part. The gauge check flagged one line: the pocket corner radius on balloon 37, planned on radius gauge RG-03, whose steps are a quarter of the band. It was left as a known risk. It should not have been.
Traveler and tooling (E09, E10), September 14 to 16 Traveler TR-8140-220 rev A was reviewed on September 16 with three findings, all closed the same day: no hold point for clause Q12, key characteristics not marked at operation 30, and an anodize purchase order without the specification revision or the masking of the lug bore. Fixtures FX-8140-01 and FX-8140-02 arrived on September 14, were checked on CMM-01 and went on the equipment register, to be validated by the first article (VAL-26-022).
Production readiness review (D09), September 10 and 17 PRR-26-014 on September 10 ended in No go: fixture FX-8140-02 had not arrived. The re-review on September 17 decided Go with conditions: prove the CMM program on the first part; check anodize thickness on every lot from Supplier F, which was on a recovery plan; and run the job on second shift only after a supervised setup. T. Brooks signed the record.
First piece and first article (E12, D19), September 21 to 26 At the op 30 first piece on September 21 the lug bore read 0.4996 on the semi-finish check; the offset was adjusted and the bore finished at 0.5004. The setup was released on the second attempt. The corner radius passed on the radius gauge.
D. Ruiz measured S/N 001 on September 24. Sixty-three characteristics conformed. Balloon 37, the corner radius, read 0.112 in. on the CMM against a 0.115 minimum: NCR-26-341. The program used a cutter path that left the blend short; J. Alvarez issued program O8141 rev 2 on September 25 and logged it on E10 as a modification needing re-validation. S/N 001 was scrapped by the review board. S/N 002, made on rev 2, was measured on September 26: balloon 37 at 0.123 in. and balloons 33 to 38 conforming. The first piece check for balloon 37 moved to the CMM.
Package review and submission (D08), September 29 to October 8 M. Okafor reviewed the package on September 29. The counts found 63 Form 3 lines for 64 balloons: note 9, the part marking, had no line. The trace found an anodize certificate without the specification revision or the lot. Both were fixed on September 30, re-checked, and the package was signed and submitted on October 1. Customer A approved it on October 8; the hold point on the traveler was signed and 11 pieces shipped on October 9.
Into production Lug bore and lug thickness values for all 11 parts went on the key characteristic register. The traveler closed with 11 good and 1 scrapped, the twelfth piece made on a second job. The gauge check lesson went into the inspection plan header: no characteristic is left on a gauge coarser than a tenth of its band without a written reason.
Two partial first articles from the same quarter
Meridian Aerostructures: a machine move and a new special process source
Housing 4471-210 moved to Mill 7 (FAI-26-074). Operations 20 and 30 moved from Mill 4 to the five-axis Mill 7, with the program translated for the new control as O4471M rev 1. The trigger screen found two triggers (equipment moved, program moved to a different control); the Partial FAI scope tab set the scope at the 28 characteristics produced at the moved operations. The first piece on October 13 took three attempts (datum B face out of flat, fixture re-indicated, one piece scrapped on NCR-26-371), and the setup log flagged it for review. The partial first article was completed on October 15, submitted on October 16 and approved.
Bracket 5520-114 at a second anodizer (FAI-26-103). Supplier M (example), the candidate second anodize source, was approved for first articles only on October 30. Changing the special process source is a trigger, so a partial first article covering the anodize requirements and the characteristics the process can change (nine in all) is planned for November 20 on lot L-2734, and sits on the FAI plan log with its date.
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A management aid, not certification or a registrar audit. Using it does not by itself show conformity to AS9100D or any other standard, and your customers' requirements may add to it.
Clause numbers refer to AS9100D (SAE AS9100 Rev D) unless another document is named. The standards' text is not reproduced here: use your own licensed copy.
Aegis Insights are our own guidance, labeled wherever they appear: how we approach this work, not a requirement of any standard or customer.