Fuller Equipment Inspection Checklist: 8 Steps Before a Mining Order Ships

Before you scroll: if you got here by typing “fuller house michelle died,” “fuller house rose,” “lewis wife,” or “fuller house costumes” into Google, I can’t help you with that. I work on Fuller-brand mining equipment—the Fuller with crusher components, mill liners, and warning labels, not the sitcom.

I’m a quality/compliance manager at a company that supplies replacement wear parts and assemblies to mining and aggregate operations. I review every order before it reaches customers—roughly 50 line items a week. In Q1 2024, I rejected 11.4% of first-pass deliveries because the paperwork or tolerance was off. That’s not a great number, but it’s an honest one.

Here’s the 8-step checklist I use.

When To Use This Checklist

Use this when you’re placing a custom order, replacing a critical part, or approving a new supplier’s first article. It also works for ordinary orders if you’re the person who has to answer for a failure later.

If you’re buying a standard catalog item that has shipped a hundred times, you can probably relax. The checklist is for the orders where “good enough” stops being good enough.

The 8-Step Fuller Equipment Checklist

Step 1: Lock the Drawing and the Revision

The part number alone is not a specification. I want the drawing number, revision letter, and issue date written on the purchase order. If the drawing says “Rev C” and the supplier quotes “Rev B,” the order stops.

This sounds kind of obvious, but I’ve lost count of the orders where the revision was implied instead of written. It took me three years and about 120 rejected line items to understand that the revision number isn’t an administrative detail. It’s the contract.

If the drawing uses geometric tolerancing, I read it per ASME Y14.5. A true position callout is a tolerance zone, not a suggestion. I’ve rejected parts that were “within a millimeter” but outside the specified 0.2 mm true position tolerance.

Checkpoint: Can someone who wasn’t in the original meeting look at the PO and know exactly what to make and how to verify it?

Step 2: Verify the Spec Against the Actual Machine

A drawing can be perfectly correct for a brand-new part and still not fit the machine that has already run 8,000 hours. Bores wear. Mounting surfaces get dented. Weld build-up moves centerlines.

When I compare the drawing to the actual worn mating component, I’m not checking for a nice fit in theory. I’m checking whether this part will seat on the equipment as it is now. Back in 2022, we ordered 40 bearings to print, and they wouldn’t seat because the housing was out-of-round. The drawing was right. The housing wasn’t.

Checkpoint: Has someone confirmed the part against current field measurements in the last 30 days?

Step 3: Check Material Certs and Coating Thickness

Material certificates are not optional paperwork. For a wear plate, I’m checking hardness, chemistry, and heat-treatment batch. For a painted or coated part, I’m asking for dry film thickness and surface preparation. If color matters—and on mining equipment, safety color matters—I compare it to our reference standard. Per Pantone color-matching guidelines, Delta E < 2 is the practical ceiling for brand-critical colors. That sounds picky for a rock crusher, but the color identifies the supplier on site.

In Q3 2024, we received two batches of identical parts from two different suppliers. Same drawing, same material cert, same price. One had coating thickness around 120 microns; the other had 60 microns. Side by side, they looked identical. The thinner coating would have started flaking in about eight months. That contrast is why I check numbers, not photos.

Checkpoint: Do you have the actual test report, not a summary email saying “meets spec”?

Step 4: Measure Critical Dimensions Yourself

I know the whole point of a first-article inspection is that someone measures the part. But I also know that a supplier’s CMM report can describe the part they intended to make, not the part they made. On the first article, I measure the critical dimensions myself—or at least watch the technician do it.

The most common problem I see is people measuring at room temperature and ignoring the fact that the part will be installed at a different temperature. That matters more than people think, especially on close fits.

Checkpoint: What are the three dimensions most likely to cause a field failure? Have you personally confirmed them?

Step 5: Inspect Packaging and Lifting Points

This is where I sound like an old man. I’ve seen a $60,000 gearbox arrive with a shipping bolt still installed, so it couldn’t be aligned. I’ve seen lifting lugs welded on by someone who didn’t mark the center of gravity. Packaging is not a waste of money; it’s part of the product.

If the order is going overseas, I open one random crate and check the internal packaging, the desiccant, and the anchoring. That takes twenty minutes and has saved more headaches than any other step.

Checkpoint: Can the crate be lifted, moved, and opened without damaging the part?

Step 6: Check the Paperwork—the Step Everyone Skips

You can have a perfect part and still have a nonconforming delivery if the paperwork is incomplete. I’m not talking about invoices. I mean material test certificates, heat lot traceability, declarations of conformity, and calibration certificates for the inspection equipment.

The question everyone asks in procurement is “what’s your lead time?” The question you should ask is “what documents come with the shipment?” I’ve held a release because a supplier forgot the heat number. They thought I was being bureaucratic. But if there’s a field failure two years from now, that document is the only way to trace the problem back to the melt.

Per ISO 9001:2015, if it wasn’t documented, it wasn’t done. I know that’s a paraphrase, but the intent is what matters.

Checkpoint: If a customer asks for traceability two years from now, will this file be enough?

Step 7: Tire Specs and Transport Setup

If the order includes anything on wheels, the tire spec gets checked like any other component. I don’t do abstract “tires vs Michelin” comparisons. The real question is load index, speed rating, tread pattern, and tire age at delivery. A brand-new tire that has sat in a warehouse for four years is not the same as a fresh tire.

Michelin makes some excellent mining tires. So do other brands. But the brand name is not a specification. If the contract calls for a certain load index and a supplier ships a different one because “it’s basically the same,” that part gets rejected.

Checkpoint: Does the tire spec on the order match the actual axle load, max speed, and site conditions?

Step 8: Treat Small Orders Like Large Ones

I’ll say something that isn’t popular in every sales department: a $400 order is not permission to skip the checklist. In 2023, we shipped one replacement liner for a customer’s small crusher. It was a tiny order, so we treated it like a tiny order. The thread pitch was wrong, the customer had to stop the line, and the redo cost us about $22,000 by the time we paid freight and the customer’s downtime claim.

Small doesn’t mean unimportant—it means potential. Today’s $400 order is next year’s $40,000 order, but only if it doesn’t fail first.

Checkpoint: Does your checklist have a “small order” exception? If it does, maybe remove it.

Common Mistakes After the Checklist

Mistake 1: Approving the Part Before It’s Delivered

Some suppliers send photos or a visual report and ask for approval “so the rest of the batch can run.” I’ve approved samples before and regretted it. A photo can tell you shape, but it can’t tell you hardness, coating thickness, or thread fit. Unless the sample is in your hand or inspected by someone you trust, don’t call it approved.

Mistake 2: Skipping Incoming Inspection at Receiving

Damage often happens during transit, not production. I’ve seen crates with forklift holes, bent shafts, and re-lubricated bearings that were never actually greased. If the courier hands you a tablet and the packaging looks damaged, write it on the delivery note before you sign. That’s not being difficult; it’s protecting everyone.

That’s the checklist. It isn’t fancy. The point isn’t to have a beautiful quality manual; it’s to ask the same questions on every order, whether it’s a $400 liner or a $400,000 mill transmission part. If you take one thing from this, take the paperwork step. A physical part can be fixed; missing traceability can’t be recreated.