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From: (no name) (no email)
Date: Tue Jul 01 2003 - 09:44:27 EDT
<<Further semi manufacturers have always sorted mostly the same run into lots
of part numbers and categories. Basically they make a part and then sort it
into many bins depending on its parameters. It may well be that some of
these are mil spec and some are not. It is however not neccessarily true
that the "better" parts are military. The better parts get a different
part number and are sold as premium commercial. The parts closest to the
center of the spec. are sold to the military spec. community.>>
Jim makes a lot of good points.
In the late 1950s, during the height of the Cold War, I was Technical
Director for a division of the Bendix Corp. One of the products we made was an
electric fuel pump that was widely used in automobiles, boats and aircraft. The
pump, housed in a steel cylinder about the size of a beer can, was considered a
paragon of reliability and can still be purchased from another manufacturer
today.
The pumps for automobiles were packaged in bulk, shipped off to auto stores,
and sold for about $20 retail. The boat pumps were packaged individually in
blue and white boxes and sold for about $40 in marine chandleries. The aircraft
pumps were sealed in moisture resistant pouches, packed with a spec sheet, and
sold for about $200. THEY WERE THE SAME PUMP. All came off a single
production line, went through the same test, and were not sorted in any way.
It was my experience at the time that many "mil spec" items were simply
commercial products, specially packaged for long storage. Indeed, many of the
specifications were written retroactively merely to insure consistency of
production. The military tends to use equipment far longer than its commercial
counterparts and wants to assure spare parts that fit. Remember that the B52 bomber is
50 years old and was in use over Afghanistan and Iraq.
Larry Z
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