What Is Factory Acceptance Testing

Virtual assessment offers you digital support from our experts anytime anywhere. Contact us to ensure proven quality of your purchase and request a quote. Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. Third-party inspections might detect issues potentially overlooked by the manufacturer. However, given the risks of fraudulent or misleading test reports, increasingly more businesses use third party inspectors to monitor these tests and validate manufacturer test reports.

A poor or rushed FAT can lead to missed non conformities, which can only then be corrected after the equipment is installed—which in turn can wreak havoc on a project schedule. Our factory acceptance testing services offer extensive solutions to ensure the quality and compliance with specifications and contractual requirements for equipment and components. Make sure that your equipment or plant performs as expected under a full range of foreseeable conditions and avoid costly contractual penalties if you are a manufacturer or project downtimes if you are an operator. FATs are beneficial not just for the buyer and end users but for the manufacturer as well. Both parties can be assured that the equipment meets all the contractual specifications and any issues can be addressed before arriving at the customer’s site.

Factory Acceptance Testing

The test protocol is developed during the planning and furthermore who is responsible to attest the test protocol. The procedures to carry out the FAT shall be well defined and documented in a proper way. The needed competence for involved test personnel is described during the planning. It is recommended that personnel with experience suitable for the intended process application and safety instrumented system deals with the FAT planning. Determine how to remove a defective part and document the process in an easy-to-use format such as a One Point Lesson (OPL). Using your technicians and operators at the FAT, practice changeovers, and start-up and shut-down protocols.

Additionally, the ownership aspect is invaluable, as the best technology going into a plant is not going to work if the operators are not comfortable with it, or have no faith in it. Engaging the production team early definition of factory acceptance testing in the process is one of the most important aspects of new equipment design. If training is provided as part of the FAT, make sure the people being trained are those who will run the line, not the engineers.

Examples of Factory Acceptance Test in a sentence

A Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) is a process in which a manufacturer tests a machine or system before it is delivered to the customer. The purpose is to ensure that the machine or system meets the requirements that were ordered by the customer. A Factory Acceptance Test (FAT), is usually conducted at the manufacturer’s facility and may include functional testing and performance testing.

This test is also conducted for 60 minutes to ensure the system meets the acceptance criteria. Verify lines hold pressure when fully assembled, record pressure at start and stop. This test is generally conducted for 60 minutes to ensure the system meets the acceptance criteria. All inspections and testing are done at the vendor’s location, usually on the shop floor so that when/if issues arise they are in an area that is convenient for modifications to be made to the equipment.

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Equipment has to meet quoted or contractually guaranteed specifications prior to delivery and final installation. Our factory acceptance testing services provide verification that all technical and quality requirements have been met before a component leaves the factory. A factory acceptance test is a final testing and acceptance plan that lays out the very specific procedures and expected results for testing a piece of machinery or equipment so that it may be deemed acceptable before shipment. These plans might involve running a specified number of cycles and measuring the output against some range of expectations, measuring features, and checking electrical connections, buttons, and sensors. This critical activity is the last step in the machinery manufacturing process and sets the standard for the customer to ensure the product is fully functional before it’s shipped.

• Since the software documents have been kept up to date, these same documents can be used to verify the operations of the software.
• The PLC power supply could be installed on the same rack as the PLC or somewhere else on the panel.
• The cost of an EFAT, when needed, is normally negotiated between the vendor and the operator.
• In the world of industrial automation, a Factory Acceptance Test or FAT is simply a test for a newly manufactured control system that takes place at your factory or your workshop before you ship the control panel to the customer.
• The formal FAT would then be essentially a repeat of what was already done, but would be witnessed by and signed off by the customer and the consultant.

The purpose of a Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) is to verify that equipment/software for a new project is working properly prior to installation. While FATs are not required, they are certainly a very important step in ensuring a successful project. Forgoing a FAT and jumping straight to installation could lead to potential engineering issues that can be more costly to repair once the installation is complete.

The focus is to consider FAT is more than a pressure test on the valves so a checklist has been provided for activities which should be done during FAT. Some of the applicable industrial standards such as API 598 and ISO 5208 are briefly reviewed in this chapter. To wrap things up, with the Factory Acceptance Test you simply make sure that all of the PLC inputs and outputs, the wiring, and the PLC logic work as expected before you ship it to the client’s site. For each analog output we can simulate a signal in the input and then check if the analog output changes based on what we expect in the PLC logic. By doing this, I am simulating a 2-wire transmitter connected to my analog input card. Now I can play with the simulator, change the input values and observe the changes on the output based on the PLC logic.

Along with the documents listed above, other manufacturing documents are reviewed by the manufacturer / OEM to verify that the equipment supplied meets the design drawings and the customer’s requirements prior to the FAT. Any instrumentation used to record data during the test will be verified to be within the calibration date as required by manufacturer or customer specifications, prior to the test. Corrective steps will be taken if a test fails and any retesting will be performed if required. Some tests may require additional testing or clarification of the testing methods. Under these conditions, additional comments will be documented in the deviation section of the FAT. Deviations are red-lined to be captured in final as-built drawings.

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