MSE Primer and Overview 20250710.docx

CDRL Measurement System Evaluation (MSE) Overview Purpose of MSE documentation

· MSE documentation is used to evaluate the acceptability of the Acceptance Inspection Equipment (AIE), Automated Acceptance Inspection Equipment (AAIE), and various other forms of measurement systems used to meet the inspection and test requirements laid out by the contract, specification(s), Quality Assurance Plan (QAP), and drawing(s).

AIE

· AIE includes all equipment, both physical and electronic, including test fixtures and equipment used for examination and/or testing of a product to determine conformance to the Technical Data Package (TDP).

· When it comes to information on each piece of AIE that is being used in the MSE, the accuracy of each gage is the primary concern to the government.

· It is expected that any gage used for inspection purposes has a minimum accuracy of no worse than the characteristic in question’s range/10.

· Commercial Inspection Equipment

· Industry-developed inspection equipment of universal application, without limitation to a specifical part or item.

· Standard test equipment

· Equipment that is specific to a function rather than to an item (hardness testers, tensile strength testers, meters, weighing devices, ohmmeters, voltmeters, oscilloscopes, etc.).

· Standard Measuring Equipment

· Equipment and standards used to perform measurements (micrometers, rulers, tapes, height gages, protractors, etc.). This also includes visual inspection equipment such as scratch and dig standards, surface finish comparators, color standards, etc.

· Contractor Inspection Equipment

· Government-approved equipment utilized by the contractor to perform examination and tests to assure conformance to contract requirements.

· Nondestructive Testing (NDT)

· Technical methods and processes used to examine materials or components in a way that does not impair future usefulness and serviceability of product in order to detect, locate, measure and evaluate flaws; to assess integrity, properties and composition; and to measure geometrical characteristics. NDT would include radiography/radioscopy, ultrasonic, eddy current, magnetic particle, liquid penetrant, etc.

· AIE need to be calibrated by a system in accordance with ISO 10012, ISO 17025, or ANSI/NCSL Z540.3 with an appropriate interval to ensure the ability of the equipment to accept only conforming product and reject all non-conforming product.

AAIE & Complex Designs

· All AIE in which the inspection and acceptance determination of the product is performed in an automatic manner are considered AAIE.

· All characteristics inspected by AAIE shall utilize inspection equipment with a minimum demonstrated reliability of 99.8% at a 90% confidence level for Critical characteristics, a reliability of 98% at a 90% confidence level for Major characteristics, and a reliability of 95% at a 90% confidence level for Minor characteristics to detect non-conforming material unless otherwise specified in paragraph (g) of Attachment 9 ES6925.

· All AAIE packages submitted to the government for approval shall be in accordance with MIL-A-70625.

· AAIE packages shall include a proposed prove out test plan designed to qualify the accuracy of each inspection and the accept/reject decisions and resultant actions.

· Contractors shall be responsible for producing and maintaining the acceptance and rejection verification standards/masters representative of the characteristics the AAIE is designed to inspect.

· AAIE are put through an initial prove-out test (comprised of an accuracy and then a decision-making reliability test) followed by periodic verification tests.

· Complex designs are any designs that are not typically commercially available and require more information to ascertain the efficacy of the measurement system.

Tool Control

· In some cases, certain characteristics of components might not be accessible once they have reached a certain point in the manufacturing process. In these cases, tool control might be an appropriate form of acceptance.

· This is commonly applied for manufacturing processes involving forming tools such as punches, dies, molds, etc.

· Tool control might be appropriate for any manufacturing process where the resultant product is primarily a function of the health of the tooling rather than the actual manufacturing process.

General Submission Requirements

· All MSE requirements shall flow down to any sub-contractors at any tier who are performing inspections that the government relies upon for acceptance purposes.

· Master List/Matrix

· A detailed Master List or Matrix that cross references each characteristic and its inspection requirement from the applicable drawings, specifications, and/or QAPs with the proposed inspection methods and equipment.

· Any applicable amendments Engineering Change Proposal (ECP), Notice of Revision (NOR), etc.

· Drawing, specification, or QAP characteristic letter/number, description, and inspection requirement.

· Inspection method with AIE identification (model #, gage id#, etc.).

· AIE

· Documentation for all critical, special, major, and minor characteristic inspections.

· Standard Measuring Equipment

· Manufacturer, model, resolution, and accuracy

· Current calibration certificate

· Go-NoGo/Functional Gages

· Gage drawings with revision and date that shows gage material with surface finish and hardness of contacting gage elements as well as dimensions with tolerances.

· Current calibration certificate and schedule

· Tool control

· Measurements of forming tools (punches, dies, molds, etc.)

· Inspection frequency and gages used to measure form tooling

· Process control parameters that affect the component dimension

· Procedures for tool control inspection including out of tolerance dimension procedures, corrective action plans, and segregation of product since last successful inspection.

· NDT

· The design documentation, specific application techniques, and operating procedures in accordance with ASTM E 543 and the applicable nationally recognized standard practice(s) specific to the NDT method(s) employed on the contract, such as ASTM E-1742 and SAE-AMS-STD-2154.

· AAIE

· There are several stages of AAIE approval, before any of the components of the AAIE are fabricated/purchased, concept designs should be submitted for approval. These concept designs include the following:

· Sketches of the inspecting elements

· Theory of operation

· Description of calibration and verification programs and standards

· AAIE must go through an initial prove-out test comprised of an accuracy test and a decision-making reliability test.

· This testing process is meant to be rigorous and thorough.

· The final prove-out test must be government witnessed.

· The benefit of properly designing, setting up, and proving out an AAIE system is that once the prove-out test is successfully performed, the system does NOT need to go through this process again unless there are changes made to the system or sometimes at the beginning of a new contract.

· The system must go through periodic verification tests to verify the health of the system.

· Verification tests are performed by running known bad samples through the system to verify the system’s ability to detect defective product.

· The schedule for these periodic verification tests is up for discussion between the contractor and the government.

· Description of all fail-safe measures that lead to rejection of Unit Under Test (UUT).

· Proposed test plan to qualify the accuracy of inspection and correctness of accept or reject decisions and resultant actions.

· Manufacturer, model, resolution, and accuracy of any commercial device to be incorporated into the design.

· Once the concept designs are approved, more detailed proposed design information should be provided:

· Before any fabrication

· Drawings of inspecting elements

· Proposed system operating conditions with associated logic flow diagrams

· Drawings of the calibration or verification standards

· Layout or block diagram showing overall equipment arrangement and interconnection, including UUT

· Before performing the test to qualify the AAIE

· Setup, calibration, operation, and verification instructions

· The final prove-out test plan

· Prove-out test must be government witnessed

· Accept/Reject settings and a flow diagram

· Detailed operating instructions indicating the application of the AAIE and accept/reject settings

· Once the prove-out test is performed, the results of the test should be incorporated into a report that details the final design.

· Results of the prove-out test including the data generated and any calibration results

· Design depicting the equipment as it was tested

· Setup, calibration, operation, and verification procedures

· Calibration and verification records