On Sun, 09 Feb 2014 13:53:14 -0800, Erik wrote:

On 2/9/14, 4:00 AM, John B. wrote:
On Sat, 08 Feb 2014 17:11:51 -0800, "Paul Hovnanian P.E."
wrote:

Bob Lowe wrote:

Hi again- Apparently there is no standard 'Grade' for Aircraft hardware
such as bolts and nuts, only Aircraft 'Quality'. Does anyone know of any
'Standards' for this 'Quality'? The best that I can determine is that
each manufacture of Aircraft Quality Hardware have their own standards and
are not made to any 'Industry' standards. I have found out that some
manufactures will not even give a PSI rating for their nuts and bolts,
only stating that they are of 'Aircraft Quality'. Can anyone put more
light on this?
Thanks,

Aircraft parts are manufactured and tested to specifications which depend on
their use. So 'aircraft quality' only means that they conform to some
specification and QA processes are in place to ensure that they do.

An 'aircraft quality' bolt may not be any stronger than a typical hardware
store grade one. But you can be fairly certain that they all meet the spec.

In the airplane fixing business "Aircraft Quality" is a meaningless
term, or at least I never saw the term used in more then 20 years of
working on the things. What would be specified was something like
Bolt, AN 64-23, fiber self locking nut, AN 23-24, washer, AN
23-405.\, or maybe Bolt, internal wrenching, P.N. 23-12345.


Yes, agreed. That 'Aircraft Quality' statement always equates to some
snake oil marketer peddling off crap.

Erik
I live in the Seattle area where everybody either works at, worked at,
or knows someone who works at Boeing. "Aircraft Quality" is used
around here a lot. For example, I was in a local bike shop once and
they had a fancy new frame hanging from the ceiling that was "Aircraft
Quality T6" So I asked the guy which alloy the frame was made from and
he tells me "It says right there, T6" . I told him that T6 was a
temper designation, not an alloy. He said then that he knew aluminum
and that T6 was an aircraft quality aluminum alloy. Then he said that
they also had cranks made from "Billet Alloy". Which was also
"Aircraft Quality". I just bought the light I went in for and left.
Eric

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