Selling Surplus Aerospace Material With Mill Certs

The short answer: buyers are buying the paper as much as the metal

An aerospace or defense buyer can only use surplus material if they can prove it meets the drawing callout. That proof is the certification package. If you can hand over a mill cert whose heat number matches the marking on the bar, and the cert shows the specification the drawing calls for, you have something a buyer can put into a job. If you cannot, most quality departments will reject it at receiving inspection no matter how good the metal looks.

That is why two shops with the same rack of titanium remnants can get very different results. One kept the certs filed by heat number and transferred markings every time a piece was cut. The other has unmarked drops and a folder of certs nobody can match. The first shop has inventory. The second has scrap.

What belongs in a surplus cert package

Every piece you list should be traceable back to the producing mill. At a minimum, a buyer will look for the following.

• Mill test report (MTR). In European terms this is often an EN 10204 type 3.1 inspection certificate: a document issued by the manufacturer, signed by an inspection representative independent of production, stating the product complies with the order and listing actual test results for that heat or lot.
• Heat or lot number printed on the cert and physically marked on the material. If the marking was cut off, the piece has lost its link to its paper.
• Specification and revision, for example an SAE AMS number, an ASTM number, or a military spec, plus the temper or heat treat condition.
• Chemistry and mechanical properties as tested: composition, tensile, yield, elongation, and hardness where the spec requires it.
• Country of melt. For many defense programs this matters because of the specialty metals clause, DFARS 252.225-7009, which restricts specialty metals that were not melted or produced in the United States or a qualifying country.
• Chain of custody. A distributor cert or your own receiving record that links the mill cert to your purchase order, so the buyer can see who held the material between the mill and you.

If you add your own certificate of conformance, keep it factual: what the material is, which cert it traces to, and that it was stored and cut under your normal controls. Do not certify anything you did not verify.

Which surplus tends to have buyers

The material that moves is the material aerospace drawings call out most often, in forms and sizes a machine shop can use. Common examples include:

• 6061 aluminum plate to AMS 4027, often stocked in the T651 stress relieved temper.
• Ti-6Al-4V annealed sheet, strip and plate to AMS 4911. Titanium bar is covered by other specs, such as AMS 4928, so check the cert against the form.
• 17-4PH stainless bar to AMS 5643. Condition matters here: material in Condition A, H900 or H1150 has different strength and hardness, so the cert has to state it.
• Nickel alloys, 300 series and precipitation hardening stainless, and 7000 series aluminum, when certs are complete.

Small quantities are not a problem. A buyer who needs one plate for a ground support fixture or a few feet of bar for a prototype often cannot meet a mill minimum or wait for a mill run. A properly certified remnant can fill that gap.

What makes surplus unsellable

Most surplus that cannot be sold fails for the same handful of reasons. Check your inventory against this list before you list it.

• Lost markings. Pieces cut from a larger bar without transferring the heat number to each drop.
• Mixed heats in one bin with no way to tell which cert goes with which piece.
• Customer owned material. Leftover stock that a customer furnished for a job usually belongs to that customer. Read the contract before treating it as yours to sell.
• Condition problems. Corrosion, pitting, or damage from outdoor storage. In a coastal climate like Brevard County, material left uncovered can pick up surface corrosion that a buyer will see in photos.
• Unknown country of melt when the buyer's program carries the specialty metals clause.
• Certs that do not match. A cert for a different size, temper, or spec revision than the piece you are holding.

Counterfeit and distributor rules that apply to surplus

Buyers treat surplus with extra care because it comes from outside the normal mill and distributor channel. Two industry standards shape what they ask for. SAE AS6174 covers counterfeit and nonconforming materiel other than electronics, and its stated aim is buying from reliable sources and assuring authenticity. AS9120B is the quality management standard for aviation, space and defense distributors. You do not need either to list surplus, but expect buyers to ask questions drawn from them: where did this come from, how was it stored, and can you prove it.

Surplus electronic components are a separate, stricter market. Larger defense contractors operate counterfeit electronic part detection systems under DFARS 252.246-7007, which flows down to subcontractors supplying electronic parts. If you hold surplus connectors, ICs or passives, the documentation trail back to the original manufacturer or an authorized distributor decides whether anyone can use them.

How to build an inventory list buyers can act on

A clear list saves days of back and forth. Use one row per heat, and include these columns.

Photos of the material with its marking visible, next to the matching cert, answer most questions before they are asked.

Why there is demand for surplus on the Space Coast

Brevard County has a heavy concentration of launch and spacecraft work: SpaceX at Launch Complex 39A and Space Launch Complex 40, ULA at Space Launch Complex 41, and Blue Origin's New Glenn factory in Exploration Park on Merritt Island. That work generates a steady need for ground support equipment, test fixtures, brackets and prototype parts, often in small quantities and on short schedules. Local shops that cut aerospace alloys also build up remnants. Matching the two is a paperwork problem more than a logistics one, which is where a sourcing service can help.

How listing surplus with Aerospace Sourcing works

When a buyer sends a request that calls for certified material, we look for a supplier whose material and paperwork fit. We review the certs before anything ships, and the material goes to the buyer as part of a cert package.

1. Sign up at /suppliers/ and choose the option to sell surplus certified material.
2. Send your inventory list. Spreadsheets are fine.
3. We review the signup and contact you when a buyer request matches something you hold.
4. Before any customer data is shared, you sign a flow-down NDA. You will not learn the end customer unless the customer approves.

We cannot promise how often your material will match a request. We can promise that a well documented list is the one we can act on.

List your certified surplus for free

If you have plate, bar or tube with matching mill certs sitting on a rack, list it at /suppliers/. It costs nothing, and when a buyer needs a small quantity of certified material fast, a documented remnant is often the quickest answer. For more on what aerospace buyers check before they buy from any supplier, see the supplier hub, the readiness checklist, and our page for machine shops that generate this material.

Questions

Related

• Aerospace and Space Work for CNC Machine Shops
• Aerospace Supplier Readiness Checklist
• How Shops Get on a Prime's Approved Supplier List
• Aerospace Work for Finishing, Heat Treat, NDT and Cleaning Shops

Sources

• eCFR / Cornell LII: DFARS 252.225-7009 specialty metals clause
• Acquisition.gov: DFARS 252.246-7007 counterfeit electronic part detection
• SAE: AS6174 Counterfeit Materiel
• SAE: AMS 4911 titanium alloy sheet, strip and plate, 6Al-4V annealed
• TW Metals: AMS specification reference
• Mill test report overview (EN 10204 certificate types)
• Space Florida: Exploration Park