What QPL-Listed Means for O-Rings

What a listing is, and what it is not

The Department of Defense's guide to qualification, SD-6, describes qualification as a process carried out ahead of, and independent of, any one purchase, in which a product is examined, tested and approved against the specification. A listing covers the product made at the plant that produced the tested sample; the qualifying activity can extend it to another plant only after it is satisfied the product there is at least equal.

A listing is also narrower than it sounds. The supplier still owes parts that meet the whole specification on every contract, the buyer can still turn a delivery down, and inspection still applies; SD-6 is explicit that being listed changes none of that. Listed sources recertify on a cycle, every two years unless the specification sets another, that the product is still made the same way at the same plant. And a listed source may not advertise that the Department of Defense endorses its product.

Which O-ring documents carry a list

The list belongs to the material or performance document, not to the dash number. The table's families and statuses are read from the DLA ASSIST and SAE Mobilus records, and the same families are on the mil-spec O-ring index.

Conductive EMI gaskets have their own government list, QPL-83528; the MIL-DTL-83528 guide covers it. Where a document has no list, the manufacturer's certificate of conformance to the document is the evidence.

Checking a government list in the DLA QPD

1. Open the Qualified Products Database at qpldocs.dla.mil and choose Search, which is public and read-only; DLA describes the QPD as the official repository of qualification data, kept by each qualifying activity, and the online replacement for the old paper lists.
2. Search by QPL number or governing specification (25988 or 25732 for the two O-ring lists above). The search also takes the document number, the title, the federal supply class, the government designation, the manufacturer's designation and the source name.
3. Open the listing for the document and find the government designation you are buying, the manufacturer's own designation beside it, and the source.
4. Compare that source and designation with the manufacturer's certificate for your lot. They should match; a certificate that names a different maker is a question to ask before you accept the parts.
5. Check at the time of the order, not from an old printout, because the qualifying activity updates the database as sources are added or removed.

Checking an SAE list

The ASSIST records for AMS7276 and AMS7259 mark their lists as non-government. The Performance Review Institute (PRI) administers qualified products listing programs for the aerospace industry, and its online list lives in eAuditNet: registration costs nothing, and the Online QPL under the Resources menu searches by manufacturer or by SAE specification. The same match applies as for a government list: the source and the product on the list against the manufacturer's certificate for your lot.

Buying a listed part through a distributor

A listing does not have to be the seller's. Under FAR 52.209-1, where a federal contract carries a qualification requirement, the product, manufacturer or source must be qualified at award whether the contractor or a subcontractor supplies it, and the offer names the manufacturer, the source, the item and the qualification test number. SD-6 lets a distributor authorized by the manufacturer be listed in its own right, and a distributor that rebrands must keep the original manufacturer's identification on the part so it stays traceable. A distributor that is not listed, as Conquest is not, supplies the listed manufacturer's product with that manufacturer's certificate. The Conquest certificate of conformance names the manufacturer, and for a specification part the manufacturer's own certificate ships with it.

What to put on the purchase order

• The part number and the document with its revision, for example M83248/1-214 against MIL-R-83248/1, or, where the print allows it, AS3209 or AS83248/1, both on AMS7276
• "QPL source required" where the document has a list
• The manufacturer's certificate of conformance to the document, and the test report if your program needs one
• Any age limit counted from the cure date

The certificate of conformance guide sets out what each document says, and the quote form takes the callout as your print reads it.

Parker is a trademark of Parker Hannifin Corporation. No affiliation or endorsement is implied.

Sources

1. SD-6, Provisions Governing Qualification, Defense Standardization Program, February 2014 edition as served by DLA ASSIST (read 2026-09-25): what qualification is and does not do, plant-specific qualification and its extension, the two-year recertification, authorized-distributor listing and rebranding, the no-endorsement condition
2. FAR 52.209-1, Qualification Requirements (Feb 1995), acquisition.gov, read 2026-09-25
3. DLA Qualified Products Database: About page and search page (qpldocs.dla.mil), read 2026-09-25
4. Performance Review Institute, QPL programs page (p-r-i.org/qpl) and PRI-QPL eAuditNet User Guide (April 2021), read 2026-09-25
5. DLA Qualified Products Database search results for QPL-25732 (governing spec MIL-PRF-25732E) and QPL-25988 (MIL-DTL-25988D), read 2026-09-25
6. DLA ASSIST document records for MIL-PRF-25732, MIL-DTL-25988 and its slash sheets, AMS7276, AMS7259, AMS-P-83461, AMS-R-83485 and AMS-P-5315, and SAE Mobilus records, read 2026-09-24
7. Parker O-Ring Handbook ORD 5700 (2021), Table 8-4, page 8-5, for NAS1613 (read 2026-09-24)
8. DLA ASSIST MS28775 record and MS28775E Notice 3 (cancelled 2000-09-29, superseded by SAE-AS28775), read 2026-09-25
9. DLA ASSIST MIL-DTL-25988D Notice 1 (2025-06-11: inactive for new design, in part superseded by SAE-AMS-R-25988), read 2026-09-28