Thanks for the response Brent!
We walked out of that seminar worried that we might have had a very big problem.
As far as "mill practices" I think lighter and stronger (whatever strong means) is usually what they go after, with weldability coming in 3rd. :)
To add to the complication.. We have a number of customers who still demand seal welding on HDG and some epoxy painted HR. This presents some other inspection issues. Most folks don't demand seal welding on the type of stuff we do, but some are just old school or have very specific concerns about corrosive environments and moisture making the steel less pretty.
Miller speaks well on that part of it here
http://www.jflf.org/v/vspfiles/assets/pdf/design_file6.pdfIn the end... I guess we were forced to dig deeper into our subjects, which is always good.