Q&A's about MIL-STD-171

Q. Steve,
Yes, they are listed as the same thing. I suspect the separate listings are there for historical reasons, backwards compatibility to old drawings that list those finishes.

In fact, yes, if you look at the E revision, 1.2.2.1 through 1.2.2.5 were listed as Class 2a through Class 2e in QQ-C-320. Perhaps AMSQQC320 did away with the a through e subdivisions under class 2.

Thanks very much for chiming in Ray.

I obtained the old rev E of the spec from the Department of Defense website and I will look through it to see the differences.

Thanks,
Steve

A. You searched all over the web? It took 15 seconds to type MIL-STD-171 5.1.1 into Google and find out that it is zinc phosphate.

A. Hi, Joyce; Hi, Michael.

Most MIL specs are available for downloading at http://assist.daps.dla.mil/quicksearch/^^{https://quicksearch.dla.mil/}

Just put "MIL-STD-171" into the 'Document ID' box.

The download is free (although there is nothing as expensive as "free") -- you are being taxed to fund someone (probably a beltway bandit who made substantial political contributions) to give your offshore competitors a free leg up on you. You are paying for all the "free" copies your Indian and Chinese competitors download; I guess you might as well get a "free" copy yourself :-)

A. According to my hard copy of MIL-STD-171C dated 16 March 1979, finish no 5.1.1 is the general lead in to Metallic Coatings, usually applied by an electroplating or hot-dip process. The specific coating(s) are listed in Table II which is several pages long and includes a variety of metals and thicknesses of coating including Cadmium, Zinc, Gold, Aluminum, etc., each of which is covered by another referenced Military Specification.

Hope this helps.

A. Hi. Indeed it's a bit confusing because the document has a "section" 5.1.1 labeled "Detail Requirements, Metallic Coatings", but it also has a "finish" 5.1.1 which is, as Jeffrey described, Zinc phosphate:

Regards,

A. Hi Tom. MIL-STD-171 appears to have no section 3, and finish 3.3.1 appears to be "Black oxide for iron and steel, MIL-DTL-13924 [on DLA]".

But I'm not understanding whether you are looking for a copy of the spec (which this page tells you where to get), or whether you are saying that you are looking for a quotation on having the service done to your components. If the latter, please post something about size, volume, etc., so readers can determine whether they will be able to handle it. Thanks.

Regards,

A. Hi John. Personally I don't think it's either; I think it's just "Finish No. 4.1 -- Abrasive blasting (Method I of TT-C-490 [from DLA] )"

But it's always risky to ask a third party what the first party wants, and 'bad communication' still ranks as perhaps the biggest business problem, so I think you should require clarification before proceeding :-)

Regards,