Material Specs - International

[mikemcgk]

I have been a browser of this website for quite some time, and I've come across an issue which does not seem to have a direct answer through my research.

Here's my goal: My company wants to begin implementing, on our drawings, the specification/standard which the selected material must conform to. The idea being that the drawing may be sent to a variety of suppliers, both international and domestic, and we can be sure that the material that will be used meets the specs used during the design & analysis process. In the past this has been handled by specifying a material hardness in the drawing's title block. Example: Material: 6061-T6 95 BHN min.

Our goal now is to have something like: Material: "6061-T6 in accordance with AMS 4150C" (or ASTM B429 or...?).

Which brings me to the question: what practice have you seen work for this purpose? Which system of standards is best suited to controlling material from suppliers?

Thanks for the help,
Mike

[jboggs]

Certainly not a final answer... but... it seems to me that no matter what standard you choose, there will always be some suppliers that do not have immediate access to it. I would recommend that you choose some standard that is recognized, or at least commonly referenced, in the majority of countries in which your suppliers operate. Place some notification on your drawings (in bold print) that it is the supplier's responsibility to assure that he is meeting the stated standard. Prepare your purchasing folks to be ready to respond to inquiries with recommended sources where the suppliers can obtain copies of the standard.

[mikemcgk]

Jboggs, I think we have the same opinion.

I have asked our sourcing manager overseas to ask for the system of standards our suppliers are using but he either got the cold shoulder or confused them. I think part of this issue stems from our supply base needing to improve, but our efforts to extend an "olive branch" and work with the suppliers to establish a convenient spec for both of our companies has proven fruitless. I'm now going to be purchasing a few standards to see which system will be best for us, and then just be direct and tell them (and our procurement department) that this is what needs to happen. I'll let them be responsible for finding out what the is the equivalent CNS/JIS/ISO/DIN standard that they need.

I'm not a fan of "throwing stuff over the wall" but I'm at a bit of a loss on how to make this work for everyone while staying within a reasonable time-frame if they don't want to answer the questions.

[nsanch01]

Attached is an example of how our engineers specify material on the prints. Sometime giving a range of material gets us into trouble. For example we have to figure out what material supplier PPAP’d with, and we have to require new PPAP if the additional material is used, but it does give the supplier a range of material to use.14665R05.pdf