AS6081 is the aerospace standard for distributors handling electronic parts bought on the open market, setting out how to avoid, detect and deal with fraudulent or counterfeit electronic components. It is not a quality management system in its own right; it supplements a QMS such as AS9120 or ISO 9001 with specific testing, inspection and reporting practices.
Certification / Accreditation
AS 6081 Counterfeit parts prevention
At its core, it accepts that no single test catches every counterfeit part, so it builds a layered approach: supplier vetting, documentation checks, visual inspection, and a tiered set of physical and electrical tests scaled to risk. It applies specifically to distributors sourcing electronic, electrical and electromechanical parts from outside authorised channels.
Who it’s for and what’s involved
Relevant if you are:
Implementing it involves:
How Q! supports implementation
The detail behind ‘we check for counterfeits’
Plenty of distributors say they screen for counterfeit parts; AS6081 is what turns that claim into something auditable. We help you build the supplier approval criteria, sampling plan and test regime the standard actually requires, sized to the genuine risk in your specific part categories rather than a blanket maximum-effort approach that slows everything down.
Counterfeit parts mitigation that’s documented and auditable, not just a policy on paper.
Mini FAQs
Both are possible. Some distributors are formally certified by an accredited body; others are simply required by customer contract to demonstrate conformity without third-party certification. Either way, the substance, the documented policy, supplier criteria, testing regime, is the same; certification just adds independent verification.
It scales with risk. The minimum is documentation and packaging inspection plus external visual inspection for every lot, with more intensive tests, solvent testing for remarking, X-ray inspection, lead finish evaluation, delidding, reserved for situations where there’s genuine doubt about authenticity or the customer specifically requires it.
Yes, specifically. AS6081 covers electrical, electronic and electromechanical parts. Other counterfeit risks in the aerospace supply chain, mechanical components for instance, are covered by related standards such as AS5553, which addresses similar ground for organisations across the supply chain rather than distributors specifically.
AS6081 supplements a quality management system rather than replacing one. The standard explicitly requires you to hold AS9120, ISO 9001 or an equivalent QMS, and then layers the counterfeit-specific control plan on top of it. Most distributors implement the two together rather than treating them as separate projects.
It gets physically segregated and quarantined immediately, the supplier is notified, and the discovery must be reported within 60 days to relevant authorities and industry reporting schemes such as GIDEP or ERAI. Critically, suspect counterfeit parts are never returned to the supplier for refund or replacement in the normal way; the standard treats them as having no value.
Relevant case studies
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