National Rivet & Manufacturing Company is the first manufacturer of rivets for aircraft, space and defense applications to announce that it complies with the requirements of ISO 9001:2008 + AS9100C. The certificate of registration was obtained through quality management registrar SAI Global. AS9100C certification compliments the company's significant experience in civilian and military applications, including those for brake rivets, fuselage and airframe rivets, electronics rivets, and seating and cabin rivet applications, such as overhead bins.

"AS9100C is a process control and results oriented quality system," says Francis D. Cyr, president, National Rivet. "In plain English, it means that we can quantify corrective actions and document that they effectively improve the quality of our product. Older quality systems (AS9100B) are not necessarily results oriented."

Unlike manufacturers that outsource certain activities, National Rivet performs all operations in-house, including engineering, material selection, machining and post-cold heading operations such heat-treating, coating, plating and anodizing. Because its existing quality management system already incorporated secondary finishing operations, and because data collection, evaluation and corrective action processes were long established, National Rivet was well positioned to obtain certification to AS9100C.

"Continuous improvement is a way of life at National Rivet," notes Cyr. "Another key factor that helped us obtain AS9100C certification is that we already understand and conform to customer requirements, as well as verify customer satisfaction, which are part of the new requirements."

National Rivet's AS9100C certification (CERT-0057077 ) covers its quality management system for the manufacture of rivets and other cold-formed products designed for use in the aviation, defense and space industries. National Rivet's certification is valid through August 3, 2014 and is in addition to its existing ISO 9001:2008 certification.