Quality Inspector

About this role

The Quality Inspector checks incoming materials, in-process parts, and finished products against drawings and quality standards for American Access's accessibility products, including aluminum wheelchair ramps, platforms, handrails, and imported ramp products. The role catches defects before they reach the customer and helps the cut room, welding, and warehouse teams fix the causes.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Inspect incoming aluminum stock, components, and imported finished goods for correct material, quantity, dimensions, and damage before acceptance.
• Perform first-piece and in-process checks in the cut room for length, angles, hole locations, and burrs.
• Visually inspect welds for cracks, porosity, undercut, incomplete fusion, and appearance, using weld gauges and the company's weld acceptance criteria.
• Verify finished ramps, landings, platforms, and handrails against drawings for dimensions, squareness, slope, and fit before packaging.
• Use measuring tools such as tape measures, calipers, squares, protractors, levels, and weld fillet gauges, and keep them in calibration.
• Tag, segregate, and document nonconforming material; route it for rework, scrap, or return to the supplier.
• Record inspection results, defect counts, and trends on checklists and in the company's systems.
• Notify supervisors promptly of quality problems, and help investigate root causes and corrective actions.
• Help write and update inspection checklists, standards, and visual examples of good and bad parts.
• Audit outgoing orders for correct items, labeling, and packaging when requested.
• Follow all safety rules, OSHA requirements, and company policies.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• Ability to interpret tolerances and understand weld symbols.
• Skill with precision measuring tools.
• Shop math, including fractions, decimals, and angles.
• Strong attention to detail, and the confidence to stop or reject product that does not meet standard.
• Clear written and verbal communication for documenting defects and working with production staff.
• Basic computer skills for recording results.
• High school diploma or GED.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on aluminum welding experience, or familiarity with AWS D1.2 inspection criteria.
• AWS Certified Welding Inspector (CWI) or ASQ Certified Quality Inspector (CQI) credential, or interest in earning one.
• Knowledge of ADA slope and handrail requirements for ramps.
• Experience with nonconformance reports, corrective actions, or root-cause tools such as 5 Whys.
• Experience with NetSuite or another ERP system.
• Ability to determine work order variance
• Physical Demands and Work Environment

The physical demands below are representative of those needed to perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these functions.

• Stand and walk for most of a shift across the cut room, welding area, and warehouse; frequently bend, kneel, and reach.
• Lift and move parts up to 50 lbs, and handle larger assemblies with a partner or lifting aids.
• Close vision and good color perception for detecting weld and surface defects.
• Work in a manufacturing shop and warehouse with noise, heat, UV light from nearby welding, metal dust, and moving equipment.
• Wear required PPE at all times: safety glasses, steel-toe boots, hearing protection where posted, and approved eye protection near active welding.