What is AS9100 certification?

Rigorous calibration and standardised quality are vital in ensuring products are effective and safe to use. In the aerospace industry, this is even more important as the consequences of faulty or poorly designed parts can be severe.

AS9100 is the most recently adopted quality standard system for organisations that design, develop or produce products in the aerospace industry. It was implemented by the International Aerospace Quality Group and standardised the parts, components and assemblies of the various aerospace industries; aviation, space and defence. This in turn improves quality, cost and performance by eliminating organisation-unique requirements and ensuring these products are safe for their intended use.

The history of AS9100

AS9100 is a successor to the aerospace quality management system AS9000, which was the first aerospace specific standard and was implemented in 1997. AS9000 was developed by major aerospace contractors such as Boeing, and represented the introduction of industry standardised quality. However, various corporations still used their own complementary quality requirements which caused a conflict of standards in the American aerospace industry.

In 1999, AS9100 was created as a single quality standard that encompassed all corporations and businesses in the aerospace industry. It removed corporation-specific quality standards and resulted in a unified standardisation of designs, parts and products to ensure safety and quality. AS9100 was quickly recognised and established as the global standard for aerospace, and has undergone various revisions since its inception to adapt to new advancements and technologies.

Why is AS9100 so important?

Ensuring safety

Failing to meet standards of quality in manufacturing and instrument calibration can have dangerous consequences in the aerospace industry. Customers and employees depend upon the quality of the parts and products, and it’s up to quality standard systems to guarantee this quality.

AS9100 actively maintains a level of standardised quality to ensure safety is the first and foremost consideration in manufacturing. By managing, controlling and auditing the process of manufacturing, the quality standard system can effectively avoid situations of compromised products that put lives at risk.

Improving quality

Before the implementation of aerospace specific quality standardisation, suppliers and corporations in the industry worked with competing requirements that made it difficult to improve overall industry quality. Corporations had to work out for themselves how certain parts would interact with designs, taking time and resources away from optimisation.

Since the introduction of AS9100, corporations and suppliers can better improve the quality of their parts and designs by operating on an agreed standard. These bodies can better identify inefficiencies and issues as they are working within the same standards on a global scale. As a result, aerospace manufacturers and suppliers can improve the quality of their products across the board.

Calibration

The quality management system of AS9100 is far more detailed than its predecessor. In order to comply with the specific requirements of the system, calibration is a vital aspect to make sure equipment and components meet the quality of the standard.

Businesses and organisations must register all monitoring and calibration equipment, keep up to date records of their performance and use, as well as be prepared to replace and repair equipment that is proven to be inaccurate. AS9100 also states that calibration must be performed in suitable environments to not affect readings. This ultimately ensures the quality of parts and products.

Aerospace certification at DM

DM Systems & Test are certified to carry out equipment calibration across all aerospace industries in line with AS9100 standards. We provide design, support and maintenance for defence and aviation products to guarantee quality and safety.

We have a team of expert engineers that are trained and equipped to provide the highest level of service to specialist industries like aerospace and more. To learn more about how we can deliver AS9100 certified calibration in rapid time (including same-day on-site calibration if required), contact our team today.