ASC Process Systems

14062 Balboa Blvd.

Sylmar, CA USA
www.aschome.com

HOW TO USE THE BOEING STANDARD

BAC5621
“Temperature Control for Processing of Materials”

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 ASC Process Systems
14062 Balboa Blvd.
Sylmar, CA USA
www.aschome.com

What is BAC5621?
Boeing’s standard BAC5621 , “Temperature Control for Processing Materials” , is the primary standard and set of rules
for temperature control and monitoring of ovens, autoclaves, presses, and other thermal processing equipment used to
manufacturer Boeing parts.
The standard is referenced in other Boeing process standards and serves to instruct Boeing plants and sub-contractors
on the proper methods, techniques, and tolerances acceptable for different types of equipment.

What does the standard apply to?

BAC 5621 applies only for part processes that require BAC5621 compliance. The most common application for
BAC5621 will be ovens and furnaces. Because autoclaves have their own processing standard BAC 49327, BAC5621 is
rarely required for autoclave processes.

Where to find the standard document?

ASC has a copy of BAC5621. It is stored in PDF format on ASC’s server under ASC Engineering\Standards folder. The
current version is a 2000 version.

Who is responsible to understand the standard?

BAC 5621 is important to ASC managers, autoclave/oven design engineer, field startup engineers, and most importantly
the sales person. Understanding the requirements of this standard will allow you to protect ASC as well as speak
knowledgeably to the customer when discussing temperature control and monitoring requirements.

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 ASC Process Systems
14062 Balboa Blvd.
Sylmar, CA USA
www.aschome.com

Class definitions
The standard divides equipment into certain classes of operation. Classes range from Class I to Class VI and include
information about the temperature range, uniformity survey tolerances, system instrumentation (ie. I/O) accuracies,
maximum control adjustment, and information about chart recorder resolution. You can see that depending on the
class, the uniformity can range widely.

What class is an ASC autoclave or oven?

There is no one answer for that question. In general the customer’s material processing specification will define what
class of equipment is required to cure and/or process different composite or metal-bond materials.
You can see from the chart above, if the customer tells us that the autoclave or oven will require Class I operation, our
job becomes much more difficult in that we must meet a much more demanding +/- 5F uniformity versus the +/- 10F
uniformity of a Class II equipment.
For this reason, it is important that we either find out during the quotation phase what class is required, or that we
explicitly state the class that we are providing. The startup engineer on the other hand should find out prior to uniformity
surveys what class is being applied to the equipment and make sure that it matches what was quoted.

Rule #1 – State “Class II” in quotations

Unless the customer demands the tighter tolerances and/or specific compliance, we should explicitly state that our
equipment will meet the BAC 5621 Class II operation. This provides for +/- 10F uniformity surveys and will protect
ourselves during uniformity surveys. Note that even if we state +/- 5F uniformity in our quotation, we can still state that
the equipment will meet BAC 5621 Class II operation.

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 ASC Process Systems
14062 Balboa Blvd.
Sylmar, CA USA
www.aschome.com

Rule #2 – Don’t allow Class I surveys on Class II equipment

For you startup engineers, don’t allow a customer to dictate the more rigid Class I operation if it’s really not required.
Firstly, you should ask whether the parts processed require Class I operation. Ask for the processing specification to
verify this. Secondly, if the quotation states Class II, than do not waste time trying to get +/- 5F. In this case our only
obligation will be +/- 10F.

Equipment requirements
The most important equipment requirement is the accuracy of instrumentation reading the thermocouples. The standard
requires +/- 2F, which is fairly tight. The PLC and Opto22 hardware from the factory cannot meet this accuracy, but after
we perform secondary calibration it will meet this requirement. If customer’s require additional accuracy statement from
ASC, we can comply with that.

Survey requirements
The BAC 5621 states a number of requirements for the survey. Although you are urged to read the entire standard, here
are some important facts that you should know.

Understand thermocouple quantities

The standard specifically identifies the number of thermocouples required during the survey. The quantity of
thermocouples will depend on the overall volume of the oven or autoclave.

As you see, the lowest number is 9 while the highest quantity is 40. The volume is calculated from the actual working
volume of the equipment, not the entire volume. For an autoclave it would be the working area less the floor. For an
oven it would be the internal width x height x depth.

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 ASC Process Systems
14062 Balboa Blvd.
Sylmar, CA USA
www.aschome.com

Sell additional thermocouples jacks & feed-throughs on larger equipment

From above you can see that if we sell a large autoclave, the autoclave will most likely require at least 40 thermocouples
if it is to meet BAC 5621 uniformity survey requirements.
Remember this fact when discussing thermocouple quantities with customers. For example, a 10x20 autoclave is 1500
cu.ft. and therefore would require 40 thermocouples in order to perform a compliant survey.
The additional thermocouples do not actually have to be connected to CPC. They could merely be jacks on the inside
that are connected to jacks on the outside. This would provide connectivity to the customer’s chart recorder or data-
logger without the high cost of I/O and programming.

Can you use CPC to perform a survey?

No, the standard states that the equipment’s instrumentation cannot be used to perform the survey. This means that a
separate chart-recorder or data-logger must be used to monitor the thermocouples. This would in most cases be
supplied by the customer or the customer’s representative performing the certification.
On an oven the certification personnel will string thermocouples in the oven and pass them through the door. This
means that the oven doesn’t specifically have to have the required thermocouples in jack-panel form.
On an autoclave external jacks must be used which parallel our connections in the autoclave. This provides an easy
means of connecting the chart recorder to the internal jacks.

No overshoot allowed
The standard does not allow any thermocouple to go over the upper tolerance. This means that care should be taken to
insure that the air temperature thermocouple is positioned thermally between the part survey thermocouples.

Temperature offset adjustments

The standard does allow you to tweak or adjust the instrumentation by a limited amount so that it agrees with the survey
chart-recorder readings. This is limited to the adjustment factor on the chart on page 3. This adjustment is usually
made on the Cal Offset parameter in CPC.

Use 5 minute data collection interval

The standard requires no less than one reading every 5 minutes. It does not help ASC to read more frequently, so when
performing a BAC5621 survey, make sure that the certification person sets his data-logger for one reading every 5
minutes. The benefit of this setting is that if a transient deviation (ie. spike) occurs between intervals, the logger will not
register it.

Stabilization period not defined

The BAC 5621 does not define the stabilization time required after the highest thermocouple reaches the range. The
actual material processing specification should and will define this time period. Don’t accept a time period without proof
that the material specification requires it.

Required to use of a simulated load

Unlike autoclave certifications using BAC49327, the BAC5621 survey requires a simulated load to be used during the
uniformity test. If a customer chooses to perform the test with an empty autoclave/oven, don’t argue with him - it will
pass easier.

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