I recently learned a new word: Whinge. It is an old English word that means to moan or complain angrily; to complain. When it comes to certain shelf life issues, I feel an inexplicable urge to get involved in whining. Shelf life – the expiry date of a product; It refers to how long a product can sit on a shelf before it loses its purpose. It refers to the precise period within which a good can be stored for consumption. Companies must declare the shelf life of products such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food and beverages. Use of products before expiry does not guarantee safety. Similarly, using products after the expiration date does not mean that they are dangerous or ineffective. The shelf life of the product depends on various factors such as heat, light and humidity.
Mechanical and physical stresses can also affect durability. Learn more about sustainability. Questions regarding GSA products and shelf life should be directed to the GSA National Customer Service Centre at 800-488-3111 or emailed to sles.gsa@dla.mil shelf life of certain items ends due to a predetermined expiration date. For other items, the inspection or testing date of the shelf life of the items may be extended through scheduled visual inspections, laboratory testing and, in some cases, restoration measures. · Battery-powered parts such as flight data recorders, cockpit voice recorders, life jackets, survival equipment, emergency road lighting assemblies, defibrillators, and emergency location transmitters (ELTs). ISSUE: New parts that have a specified curing date, but no expiration date or specified shelf life restriction: Some people see a « curing date » on a part`s packaging and assume that the part should be controlled based on its shelf life. Not necessarily. I have seen many parts with a curing date indicated, but the manufacturer helped us by also stating « No expiration date » or a variant of it. Great, isn`t it? The problem arises when there really is an expiration date, but there is no indication of it other than the hardening date. Here`s a selection of the reasons I heard why I left it out: for the acceptance of aerospace pipes and pipe assemblies. GSA procedures for shelf life management are described in Federal Standard 793B, Storage Storage Standards. In addition, GSA fully supports the DoD shelf life guidelines included in DoD 4140.27-M, Shelf Life Management Manual.
Here is an example of how to understand the durability of aviation sealants. Let`s say you want to buy two liters of Class A NSL 1422: Fuel Tank Sealant, an FAA-approved PMA replacement for the PPG PR-1422 sealant. It has a shelf life of nine months. This means that the product works 100% for nine months. Even if you buy it five months after the date of manufacture, you will still have four months of 100% performance. · New parts that have a specified curing date but no specified expiry date or Type I shelf life restriction are sometimes critical finished products whose failure could endanger human life or result in the failure of critical systems (e.g. an aircraft). If an item is classified as non-degrading, it is assigned an SLC of zero. There are special goods for which NSNs have an empty SLC; These products manage shelf life in accordance with specific regulations and are not part of the DoD shelf life program. In the procurement or procurement documents, it is indicated that no less than 85% of the shelf life of the materiel remains when the government first receives it.
Sites that receive the asset after first receipt may hold the asset with less than 85% of its remaining shelf life, but have a retention life according to the utility status code classification. However, the hardware manager can adjust or change the remaining shelf life of 85% if the material supports future use or consumption. Materiel managers are required to submit changes to their DoD representative for approval if the change affects other departments or agencies. Items with Type II durability are expandable. Some Type II elements may only be extended on the basis of visual inspection. Visual inspection may include checking the integrity of the packaging and the legibility of labels, checking for leaks or evaporation, looking for condensation, or determining discoloration or foreign matter in the material. For the shelf life of FSC 6505 (pharmaceuticals and biologics), only the expiry date is required. A lesson in sustainability – or how I learned how to buy two new gymnastics coordinators. As a relatively new aircraft owner, I learned a lot of expensive lessons. Most of these lessons have been discussed in my previous humorous attempts to explain the joys of being a new owner of an old plane. I would like to add an epilogue to my last article on this topic. To make matters worse, a number of end users/operators evaluate these coins and set their own shelf life limits.
So what should a person do with these parts? Your first option is to call the manufacturer and ask if there are any shelf life restrictions. Your second option is to call your client and ask them the same question. Either way, you should be able to track the hardening dates of the parts and communicate so much to potential customers that they can decide if they want to proceed with the purchase. Unfortunately, there is no black or white answer to this problem, except to complain about the lack of support from manufacturers. This is a common misconception that we hear all the time. Many people worry that by buying low-shelf life sealants, they end up with inferior items that don`t work 100%. This is not the case. Shelf life only reflects the time left to use a product with maximum effectiveness. PROBLEM: New parts that are truly durable but do not have a curing date, expiration date, expiration date, or any other specified expiration date. Well, this one really rubs my skin! Typically, you can have a lot of warehouses in stock, and a customer auditor will ask you why you don`t have the bearings in your shelf life control program. Imagine, of course, that warehouses do not have a hardening date, and they have no indication of such restrictions on packaging or accompanying documents. Surprised, you call the manufacturer, and indeed, there is durability.
You now hear yourself raise your incredulous voice and ask the obvious: Well, why not put it on the packaging? What follows is a long list of selfish excuses, as well as a cryptic fax explaining the retention period policy. It is based on preservation grease and bearing packaging. If we are not blessed with the spirit of prophecy, we simply will not know these things! I would like to complain a little, but no. If you have any questions about aviation seals or would like to receive a personalized quote, please email us at sales@nslaerospace.com or call (+1) 800-527-0011. We want to work with you to meet your unique needs. Buying a new instrument is not the same as having a new instrument. When I ordered all the new instruments from different suppliers, the last thing I thought of was the term « sustainability ». However, durability can be key when working with an aircraft. Basically, shelf life is the length of time an item can be stored or stored while it remains usable. In the case of my DOI-TC, I dutifully packaged it a few weeks ago and sent it back to the factory after an email exchange with a company representative. Since I never had a word about the CT, I called the company and spoke to a customer service representative. A day later, I was contacted with the autopsy report.
The TC was dead. The obvious cause was the expiration of its shelf life. According to the woman who called me, the jacks were dead and other items were not working. If an installation detects that shelf life extension information is not available in the QSL for any of its elements, agents can contact their service PKI for further instructions on possible extensions. Requests for laboratory testing are only allowed if a shelf life test for the NSN, manufacturer, batch and batch has not yet been carried out and if the quantities of material involved justify the cost of the laboratory tests. When these tests are complete, the test results and extension data are entered into the QSL. Shelf life control should be an easy program to manage, right? Not always. The simple part is when the packaging of a part has a specified expiration date; These are easier to identify and place in your shelf life control program. However, most of the difficulties stem from the following: the shelf life of some Type II items can be extended by restoration. These elements can be restored to a quasi-original or acceptable state and improved by performing certain actions. Shelf-life items have the expiration date as well as the date of manufacture, the date of curing, the date of assembly or the date of packaging.
The role of each DoD Inventory Control Point (ICP) is to establish storage standards for the items of deterioration it manages and to initiate durability extension testing in the laboratory when their facility procurement activities require such testing. Storage standards (including shelf life and whether an item only requires visual inspection or full laboratory testing to extend shelf life) are documented in the Online Materials Quality Control Warehouse Standards (MQCSS).