Customer & Industry Requirements
Active AIMS material and process specifications
Traceability required from raw material to article
Nadcap special process categories mandated by Airbus
Regulation Overview
Airbus Supplier Portal (w3.airbus.com) — access restricted to qualified suppliers
Airbus AIMS (Airbus Industries Material Specification) is the proprietary specification system governing all materials, processes, and test methods used in Airbus aircraft manufacturing. For supply chain teams managing Airbus AIMS compliance, the core obligation is ensuring that every material, coating, adhesive, sealant, and alloy delivered to Airbus—or used in producing Airbus articles—is qualified against the applicable AIMS specification and approved under a corresponding IPS (Individual Product Specification) reference.
The AIMS system encompasses over 500 active specifications organized by material category—metals, composites, paints, sealants, adhesives, and surface treatments. Airbus maintains continuous revision cycles, and suppliers must track specification currency alongside Nadcap accreditation status for all special processes. AP2190 GRAMS (General Requirements for Aerostructure and Material Suppliers) mandates that every product-supplier couple be registered on the AQPL. Non-compliance results in immediate supply chain disruption.
AIMS compliance intersects directly with REACH substance management, as Airbus requires suppliers to substitute REACH-regulated substances—particularly hexavalent chromium compounds—with qualified chromate-free alternatives per its Substance Environmental Roadmap. This creates a dual compliance burden: material performance qualification under AIMS and substance regulatory compliance under REACH, RoHS, and TSCA simultaneously.
Tier 1 aerostructure suppliers delivering assemblies, sub-assemblies, or detail parts to Airbus
Raw material manufacturers and distributors supplying metals, composites, and chemical products
Special process suppliers performing heat treatment, surface treatment, NDT, or chemical processing
Sub-tier suppliers performing Airbus-qualified processes on behalf of Tier 1 suppliers
Equipment and systems suppliers delivering items designed to Airbus specifications
Material distributors required to provide full mill certification and AIMS traceability
Key Thresholds
Airbus revises AIMS specifications continuously. A single update to an aluminium alloy AIMS triggers requalification across every IPS-approved product under that specification. Your team must identify which suppliers hold affected qualifications, verify their current IPS status, and confirm Nadcap accreditation—across hundreds of product-supplier couples. Without a centralized compliance data backbone, the cascade buries teams in manual cross-referencing.
An Airbus quality audit requests full traceability for 200 delivered articles. Each article requires AIMS specification reference, IPS approval number, mill test certificate, Nadcap accreditation confirmation, and AQPL registration evidence. Your evidence is spread across supplier portals, email attachments, and shared drives. Day 3: you still cannot locate the IPS reference for a sealant qualified 18 months ago.
Airbus's Substance Environmental Roadmap requires chromate-free alternatives for surface treatments, primers, and coatings. But substitution requires new AIMS qualification—AITM testing, IPS approval, and AQPL registration. Your REACH compliance team tracks substance deadlines while your materials team tracks AIMS qualifications. Neither team has visibility into the other's status. A strontium chromate sunset date passes without an AIMS-qualified replacement.
AP2190 GRAMS requirements flow down from Airbus through Tier 1 to every sub-tier supplier. Each level must cascade AIMS specification references, Nadcap mandates, and AQPL requirements. Sub-tier processors holding Nadcap accreditation for one Airbus specification may lack it for another. Without multi-tier supply chain transparency, qualification gaps surface only during production—or worse, during Airbus surveillance audits.
Certivo In Action
Certivo in Action — Airbus AIMS Workflow
Features Tabs
Aerospace & Defense
Your Pain Point
Core AIMS obligation; hundreds of specification-qualified materials across complex aerostructure BOMs
Industrial Machinery & Heavy Equipment
Your Pain Point
Suppliers serving both aerospace and industrial markets must segregate AIMS-qualified production
Chemical Manufacturing
Your Pain Point
Formulators of paints, sealants, adhesives, and coatings must maintain AIMS qualification per product-supplier couple
Electronics Manufacturing
Your Pain Point
Avionics and electrical component suppliers face AIMS qualification for connectors, wire insulation, and PCB materials
Medical Devices & Equipment
Your Pain Point
Shared material suppliers serving both aerospace and medical sectors face overlapping qualification requirements
Building Materials & Construction
Your Pain Point
Suppliers of structural metals and coatings serving aerospace must maintain separate AIMS qualification streams
From Manual Cross-Referencing to Automated Qualification Tracking
CORA extracts AIMS specification references and IPS approvals automatically. Your team focuses on qualification exceptions and audit responses—not manual certificate hunting across supplier portals and email archives.
Airbus Quality Response Acceleration
Generate complete, audit-ready AIMS traceability packages in hours—not the 4–6 weeks of manual compilation across multi-tier supply chains.
Proactive AIMS Compliance Management
When Airbus revises AIMS specifications or Nadcap accreditations approach expiry, Certivo reassesses your portfolio instantly. Know which product-supplier couples are affected before audit findings arrive.
Frequently Asked Questions
What products and companies are subject to Airbus AIMS compliance obligations?
Any company supplying materials, semi-finished products, chemical products, or performing special processes for Airbus-designed articles must comply. This includes raw material manufacturers, chemical formulators, surface treatment processors, and Tier 1 through sub-tier suppliers manufacturing to Airbus drawings. AP2190 GRAMS requirements flow down through the entire supply chain, and every material-product-supplier couple must be registered on the AQPL. Certivo's centralized compliance data backbone tracks these obligations across all supplier tiers.
What happens if an AIMS qualification lapses or a specification revision is missed?
Non-compliance with current AIMS specifications results in non-conformance findings during Airbus surveillance audits, potential suspension from the Approved Supplier List, and immediate production disruption. Airbus can halt shipments until qualification evidence is restored. CORA's continuous compliance monitoring and audit readiness capabilities ensure your team is alerted to specification revisions and expiring qualifications before they become findings.
How does Certivo track changes to AIMS specifications and Nadcap accreditation requirements?
Certivo maintains continuous monitoring of AIMS specification revisions and Nadcap accreditation expiry dates. When specifications are updated, CORA reassesses your entire product-supplier qualification portfolio and alerts affected teams, triggering the appropriate requalification and evidence collection workflows automatically. This regulatory intelligence and horizon scanning capability prevents qualification gaps from surfacing during audits.
What qualification formats does Certivo accept from suppliers?
Certivo accepts any format: PDF certificates, mill test reports, Excel records, IPC-1752 declarations, IMDS exports, XML files, and freeform responses. CORA's AI document parsing and certificate validation extracts AIMS references, IPS numbers, Nadcap accreditation details, and test data regardless of format or language—eliminating the need to standardize supplier documentation across your supply chain through centralized supplier self-service portals.
Does Certivo support Airbus AIMS compliance alongside REACH, RoHS, and other regulatory frameworks?
Yes. Certivo validates supplier submissions against AIMS specification requirements and REACH, RoHS, TSCA, PFAS, and Prop 65 obligations simultaneously. This is critical for Airbus's chromate substitution program, where suppliers must demonstrate both AIMS qualification for chromate-free alternatives and REACH substance compliance—through a single digital passport and traceability system eliminating duplicate collection campaigns across OEM and regulatory frameworks.