Anyone delivering a first article inspection report for the first time usually faces the same question: where do I start? This guide walks the path from the drawing to the finished inspection plan, step by step — the way it is needed daily in production and quality assurance.
What the FAI report has to deliver
The first article inspection report (FAIR) documents that a production part meets every requirement of the drawing — usually to VDA Volume 2 or PPAP. The core is always the same: every inspection-relevant characteristic on the drawing gets a unique number, every number has a nominal value with its tolerance, and every nominal value gets a measured value. Without that numbering, there is no way to tell later which measured value belongs to which dimension.
Step 1: Look at the drawing first
Before anything is ballooned, it pays to check the quality of the source. A vector PDF straight from CAD is the ideal case — text and dimensions are real characters inside the file. A scan (or a TIFF file) contains only pixels; the text has to be recovered by OCR first, and that is where errors creep in. If you have the choice, ask the customer for the CAD-generated PDF.
Step 2: Balloon the characteristics
Now the stamping begins: every dimension, every tolerance, every geometric tolerance (GD&T) and every surface finish callout gets a sequentially numbered balloon. This used to be done by hand with an inspector’s rubber stamp; today it happens on screen. What matters is completeness — a missed characteristic often only surfaces when the customer rejects the report.
Step 3: The characteristic list — from balloons to an inspection plan
Alongside the numbers on the drawing, the matching list takes shape: number, characteristic, nominal value, tolerance, gauge. This bill of characteristics is the backbone of the FAI report — it travels on as an Excel file into the CAQ system or straight to the measuring machine.
Step 4: Measure and record
The first articles are measured — depending on the characteristic with calipers, a micrometer or a coordinate measuring machine — and the actual values are assigned to the numbers. This is where clean numbering pays off: inspectors and metrologists talk about “characteristic 17”, not about “the dimension bottom left next to the bore”.
Step 5: Forms and approval
Finally the forms to VDA Volume 2 or PPAP are filled in and submitted together with the ballooned drawing. That part stays with your own inspection process or CAQ system — no ballooning tool takes the assessment and the approval off your hands.
Where software shortens the path
Steps 2 and 3 are pure legwork — and that is exactly where DrawingStamp Pro comes in: it detects dimensions, tolerances, GD&T and surface finish callouts in the drawing automatically, places the numbered balloons and exports the characteristic list to Excel. It finds most of the inspection-relevant characteristics by itself; the rest you add in two clicks. Detection is most reliable on vector drawings from CAD — with scanned drawings the built-in OCR helps, but there is more rework. More about it on the page FAI report software.