Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

First Article Inspection (FAI) is an inspection performed on a part prior to beginning full production. Vip will create several pre-production pieces of a customer’s part and perform an in-depth evaluation to verify that all engineering, design and specification requirements are correctly understood, accounted for, verified and recorded. The inspection will also confirm that, as a supplier, our material, tooling, processes, documentation, and personnel can reliably and consistently produce a part that meet the customer’s requirement throughout the production process. Once it is determined that the part is ready for customer approval, the FAI, along with the physical part, will be shipped to the customer for approval. Once approved, Vip will move into the production phase and fulfill the order.

Please note that lead time for production begins after a first article is approved by the customer. Learn more about LEAD TIMES

First article inspection reports are extremely detailed, but are a very important part of the process. Some of the key components considered in an inspection are dimensional and cavity measurements, specification requirements, and design characteristics. Due to the fact that a FAI is primarily concerned with proving repeatability, it is not necessary to perform this inspection beyond the first production run unless something significant has changed dimensionally, such as new or modified tooling. Vip provides a FAI with each new order that requires one, however due to the labor intensive nature of this process, if a FAI is required on a re-order, there will be a minimum $350 charge applied to the order. The cost will be quoted at time of re-order and will depend on the complexity of the part.

RubberForm developed this bus lane in 2019 for the City of Indelopis INDYGO Redline. We designed, engineered, built a mold and delivered 7,000 curbs in less than 5 months. We made the delivery however the contractor did not follow our specific mounting instructions and the curbs failed. IndyGo as well as the contractor did not allow our engineering team to fully engineer this first release for IndyGo’s Redline. Since 2019 we engineered it right and we now have a dedicated bus lane curb ready for deployment. Proper mounting hardware is needed to hold in position to withstand the punishment of municipal traffic. Strategically placed in road reflectors and flexible road post are needed as well to warn oncoming traffic, Bus Lane curbs are in use.