Spec QQ-P-416 and AMS-QQ-P-416?

A. Hello Darrel!

QQ-P-416 is a federal specification, and is still active even though SAE jumped the gun and issued AMSQQP416. You can get a copy by going to assist.daps.mil [ed.note 2003: this address is outdated, see below response for updated address], clicking on the quicksearch button, and typing in the number. There will be separate pdf files for the base spec and the three amendments.

Good luck!

Q. I too am looking for the actual doc. ... The link provided doesn't work ... Anyone know where I can find a working link to the QQ-P-416 doc.?

A. We dislike printing link addresses on these letters pages for that reason. They void the address or change it, and hundreds of our threads need updating.

But the updated address is assist2.daps.dla.mil/quicksearch/ -- I've just checked it and it works today. Good luck.

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Ed. note 2006: that address is now outdated too; see below]

! I wish you only good things for you, Root, except that I'm rather happy that you haven't yet been successful in downloading these for free! You can immediately get a copy of the current spec, AMSQQP416, the free-enterprise way by paying for the download. Good luck!

opinion! It infuriates me that our U.S. politicians tax American small business, only to give the money to beltway bandits to build websites to offer our foreign competitors a free leg up on us. I assume that this madness is the politicians' way of repaying campaign contributors: accept 'contributions'; pay them back a hundred times over with sweetheart deals with taxpayer money; and when American manufacturing jobs are the collateral damage, tough. Those free links never work for long anyway, unlike the free enterprise link we posted back in 2001 which still works :-)

Hi. Aryeh. Indeed, the 3rd planet circling Helios is an insane asylum :-)

But the current address for free mil specs is quicksearch.dla.mil

Regards,

Hi Robert. AMSQQP416 was last revised in 2000 and was canceled in 2002. But I don't see any "Class A" -- I see only Class 1 , 2, and 3.

Regards,

Ted,
Your link has expired, you should use this instead:
https://quicksearch.dla.mil/qsDocDetails.aspx?ident_number=51006

The 2002 cancellation notice gives the replacement as SAE AMSQQP416, which no doubt originated as a straight-up copy of the Mil spec but has gone through a few revisions since. It could be that "class A" was introduced in the SAE version at some point.

http://standards.sae.org/amsqqp416d/

Regardless, the best thing might be to ask the customer which version of QQ-P-416 they are going off of and what paragraph number contains the information relevant to what they are asking for.

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Ed. note: Thanks Ray. We've updated the links yet again.

A. Jeremy,
As you might have gleaned from the above responses, the online mil spec site only goes back to the 1991 F revision. You might try contacting the Defense Logistics Agency directly to see if they have and can send to you the older versions.

A. Hi Jeremy

The overall rule is to work to the latest spec.

However, your customer may have a valid reason for using an earlier version. You should always ask for confirmation in writing.

If the customer demands a non standard spec, ask for a copy

Standardizations Division of the Navy said they did not keep the old revisions of the spec, but referred me to IHS (Information Handling Service). I found the original version of the spec from 1949 there for $30. I ordered it and confirmed that CLASS A, B, and C, were changed into CLASS 1, 2, and 3.

In other words:
CLASS A and CLASS 1 = .0005" thick
CLASS B and CLASS 2 = .0003" thick
CLASS C and CLASS 3 = .0002" thick

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Ed. note: City & State please, Annie. This site is a place of camaraderie, and "USA" is a big place :-)

A. Annie,
Just my interpretation here, but let's break it down:

"Lot shall consist of plated articles of the same basis metal composition, class, and type"

One lot can't have parts of different substrate materials, that's pretty standard.

"plated and treated under the same conditions"

Unless there's another mil spec that defines "same conditions" for us, this is enormously open to interpretation. But one should at least be able to argue that parts run through the same bath on the same day using the same parameters (time, temp, etc., concentrations maintained as needed) are using the same conditions.

"and submitted for inspection at one time"

Self explanatory.

I would say that you should be able to split your single lot into 30 batches for processing and retain it as one lot, or perhaps split into 2 or 4 or 6 lots if that's easier for you.