DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE HANDBOOK

1 MIL-HDBK-454B 15 APRIL 2007 SUPERSEDING MIL-HDBK-454A 3 NOVEMBER 2000 DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE HANDBOOK GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT This HANDBOOK is for guidance only. Do not cite this document as a requirement. AMSC N/A AREA SESS METRIC MIL-HDBK-454B FOREWORD ii 1. This HANDBOOK is approved for use by all Departments and Agencies of the DEPARTMENT of DEFENSE 2. This HANDBOOK is for guidance only. This HANDBOOK cannot be cited as a requirement. If it is, the contractor does not have to comply.

2 3. This HANDBOOK is the technical baseline for the design and construction of electronic equipment for the DEPARTMENT of DEFENSE . It captures in one document, under suitable subject heading, fundamental design guidelines for multiple general electronic specifications. The opportunity to focus on a single document, afforded to contractors, results in substantial savings to the Government. This HANDBOOK was prepared by, and is regularly updated through, the cooperative efforts of Government and industry. The documents listed below are not necessarily all of the documents referenced herein, but are those needed to understand the information provided by this HANDBOOK . DOD-E-8983 Electronic Equipment, Aerospace, Extended Space Environment, General Specification for. MIL-F-18870 Fire Control Equipment, Naval Ship and Shore, General Specification for.

3 MIL-PRF-28800 Test Equipment for Use with Electrical and Electronic Equipment, General Specification for. MIL-HDBK-2036 Electronic Equipment Specifications, Preparation of. 4. Comments, suggestions, or questions on this document should be addressed to ( DEFENSE Supply Center, Columbus, ATTN: DSCC-VSC, Box 3990, Columbus, OH 43218-3990) or emailed to Since contact information can change, you may want to verify the currency of this address information using the ASSIST Online database at MIL-HDBK-454B CONTENTS iii PARAGRAPH FOREWORD ii 1. SCOPE 1 Guidelines applicable to electronic equipment 1 Revision of guidelines 1 Redating 1 Method of reference 1 Interrelationship of guidelines 1 2. APPLICABLE DOCUMENTS 1 Individual guidelines 1 Industry addresses 1 3.

4 DEFINITIONS 3 Airborne, space, aerospace 3 Other terms are defined in the individual guidelines 3 4. GENERAL GUIDELINES 3 Application 3 Use of selection and application standards 3 5. DETAIL GUIDELINES 3 Individual guidelines for electronic equipment see section 6. NOTES 3 Subject term (key word) listing 3 Changes from previous issue 3 MIL-HDBK-454B CONTENTS iv INDIVIDUAL GUIDELINES TITLE Guideline 1 Safety Design Criteria - Personnel Hazards Guideline 2 Capacitors Guideline 3 Flammability Guideline 4 Fungus Inert Materials Guideline 5 Soldering Guideline 6 Bearings Guideline 7 Interchangeability Guideline 8 Electrical Overload Protection Guideline 9 Workmanship Guideline 10 Electrical Connectors Guideline 11 Insulating Materials, Electrical Guideline 12 Fastener Hardware Guideline 13 Structural Welding Guideline 14 Transformers, Inductors, and Coils Guideline 15 Metals, Corrosion Resistance Guideline 16 Dissimilar Metals Guideline 17 Printed Wiring Guideline 18 Derating of Electronic Parts and Materials Guideline 19 Terminations Guideline 20 Wire, Hookup.

5 Internal Guideline 21 Castings Guideline 22 Parts Management Guideline 23 Adhesives Guideline 24 Welds, Resistance, Electrical Interconnections Guideline 25 Electrical Power Guideline 26 Arc-Resistant Materials Guideline 27 Batteries Guideline 28 Controls Guideline 29 Electron Tubes Guideline 30 Semiconductor Devices Guideline 31 Moisture Pockets Guideline 32 Test Provisions Guideline 33 Resistors Guideline 34 Nomenclature Guideline 35 Reliability Guideline 36 Accessibility Guideline 37 Circuit Breakers Guideline 38 Quartz Crystals and Oscillator Units Guideline 39 Fuses and Fuse Holders Guideline 40 Shunts Guideline 41 Springs Guideline 42 Tuning Dial Mechanisms Guideline 43 Lubricants Guideline 44 Fibrous Materials, Organic Guideline 45 Corona and Electrical Breakdown Prevention Guideline 46 Motors and Rotary Power Converters Guideline 47 Encapsulation and Embedment (Potting) Guideline 48 Gears Guideline 49 Hydraulics Guideline 50 Indicator Lights Guideline 51 Meters, Electrical Indicating Guideline 52 Thermal Design Guideline 53 Waveguides and Related Devices Guideline 54 Maintainability MIL-HDBK-454B CONTENTS v INDIVIDUAL GUIDELINES TITLE Guideline 55 Enclosures Guideline 56 Rotary Servo Devices Guideline 57 Relays Guideline 58 Switches Guideline 59 Brazing Guideline 60 Sockets and Accessories Guideline 61 Electromagnetic Interference Control Guideline 62 Human Engineering Guideline 63 Special Tools Guideline 64 Microelectronic Devices Guideline 65 Cable, Coaxial (RF)

6 Guideline 66 Cable, Multiconductor Guideline 67 Marking Guideline 68 Readouts and Displays Guideline 69 Internal Wiring Practices Guideline 70 Electrical Filters Guideline 71 Cable and Wire, interconnection Guideline 72 Substitutability Guideline 73 Standard Electronic Modules Guideline 74 Grounding, Bonding, and Shielding Guideline 75 Electrostatic Discharge Control Guideline 76 Fiber Optics Guideline 77 Integrated Diagnostics Guideline 78 Producibility TABLES Table 1-I. Probable effects of shock. Table 1-II. Suitable protective measures. Table 4-I. Fungi-susceptibility of materials. Table 10-I. Abbreviations for thermocouple materials. Table 20-I. Wire, electrical. Table 21-I. General comparison of metallic casting processes. Table 26-I. Arc-resistant materials. Table 41-I. Materials for electrical spring application. Table 41-II. Corrosion resisting steel for springs. Table 41-III.

7 Carbon steel for springs. Table 50-I. Indicator lights and associated items. Table 53-I. Waveguides and related devices. Table 66-I. Cable, multiconductor. Table 69-I. Electrical clearance and leakage (creepage) distances. Table 71-I. Wire, electrical, interconnection . Table 71-II. Cable, multiconductor, interconnection . INDEX CONCLUDING MATERIAL MIL-HDBK-454B 1 1. SCOPE Guidelines applicable to electronic equipment. This HANDBOOK provides guidance and lessons learned in the selection of documentation for the design of electronic equipment. This HANDBOOK is for guidance only and cannot be cited as a requirement. If it is, the contractor does not have to comply. Revision of guidelines. Revisions of individual guidelines are indicated by a date below the guideline number located at the bottom of the page. When the basic document is revised, those guidelines not affected by change retain their existing date. Redating. Although individual guidelines are reviewed and updated or validated at least once every eighteen months, guidelines are not redated unless technical changes are made.

8 Method of reference. Guidelines contained herein should be referenced by specifying this HANDBOOK and the guideline number for guidance only. Interrelationship of guidelines. Each guideline is intended to cover some discipline in the design of equipment, such as a procedure, a process, or the selection and application of parts and materials. Many of these disciplines, however, cannot retain a clear-cut separation or isolation from others so that when guidelines of MIL-HDBK-454 are referenced in a specification some guidelines will undoubtedly have a direct interrelationship with other guidelines. This interrelationship should be taken into consideration when referencing these guidelines. 2. APPLICABLE DOCUMENTS. Individual guidelines. See section 2 of each individual guideline for a listing of applicable documents. Documents referenced in the individual guidelines apply to the extent specified herein. (Copies of these documents are available online at or or from the Standardization Document Order Desk, 700 Robins Avenue, Building 4D, Philadelphia, PA 1911-5094.)

9 Industry addresses. Addresses for obtaining documents referenced in the guidelines but not obtainable from the Government are as follows: MIL-HDBK-454B 2 Symbol Address AGMA American Gear Manufacturers Association 1500 King Street, Suite 12 Arlington VA 22314 AIA Aerospace Industries Association 1000 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1700 Arlington, VA 22209-3928 AMS Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc. ARP 400 Commonwealth Drive Warrendale PA 15096 ANSI American National Standards Institute 11 West 42nd Street New York NY 10036 ASME American Society of Mechanical Engineers 22 Law Drive Box 2900 Fairfield NJ 07007-2900 ASM American Society for Metals Metals Park OH 44073 ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials 100 Barr Harbor Drive West Conshohockan PA 19428-2959 AWS American Welding Society 550 NW LeJeune Road Miami FL 33126 EIA Electronic Industries Alliance 2500 Wilson Blvd.

10 Arlington VA 22201-3834 GEIA Government Electronics and Information Association 777 East Eisenhower Parkway Ann Arbor, MI, USA 48108 IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEEE Service Center 445 Hoes Lane PO Box 1331 Piscataway NJ 08855-1331 IPC Institute for Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Circuits 2215 Sanders Rd. Suite 200 South Northbrook IL 60062 MIL-HDBK-454B 3 NAS National Standards Association 1200 Quince Orchard Boulevard Gaithersburg MD 20878 NFPA National Fire Protection Association Batterymarch Park Quincy MA 02269-9101 UL Underwriters Laboratories, Incorporated 333 Pfingsten Road Northbrook IL 60062 3. DEFINITIONS Airborne, space, aerospace. "Airborne" denotes those applications peculiar to aircraft and missile or other systems designed for operation primarily within the earth's atmosphere; "space" denotes application peculiar to spacecraft and systems designed for operation near or beyond the upper reaches of the earth's atmosphere; and "aerospace" includes both airborne and space applications.