Rare parts

[john daly]

Re: Addendum

Art,
As you know well a change of any consequence to a part by an engineer also changes the part number. I have seen part numbers change on some parts many times over a peiod of months as various engineering work orders were implemented. My point was that it my experience it seems unusual that a part number would not change in a span of 78 years.

john

[Art A.]

Re: Addendum

Yes, John, it is unusual that a part number (part) would span 78 years.......................BUT not really out of the question. When I left in 1999, I think I remember about 1/2 of an aperture card drawer of 5 digit part numbers. That doesn't mean that they were all released for PRODUCTION................but they could be as they were "active" part numbers. Most of these parts are fasteners. If a part did not change in form, function, or fit and could be utilized, it was. Further, Engineering had a stand alone Fasteners Engineering Dept. that actually oversaw the releasing of all fasteners. The "releasing" engineer would consult with a fastener engineer before actually releasing a fastener for a give usage.

As I recall, there was a in-house study done sometime in the late 60's and it cost about $1,200 to put a new part number thru the system, so it wasn't done "just for the hell of it".

BTW, Contrary to popular belief, Engineering Work Orders DID NOT release parts. WO's had only three functions, Design, Build, and Test. They either directed drafting or styling/outside source to design something, or one of the shops/vendor to build something, or one of the labs/test facilities to test something. Some of these may have resulted in the releasing of new/re-designed parts, but that function was solely up to the Specification Dept who issued a RELEASE NOTICE for said parts. It was a lot more involved that this but I hope you get the picture.

Art