Hey
Could someone tell me where to find the reasons for A36, A572 GR50, A513, A500 GR B being called those numbers. (I have access to all the code books but am not very good and finding what I need) I need to weld all of them together in some sort of configuration within a CORTEN container and as far as I can tell they are all carbon steels. I searched the forum and found that A500 seems to be for tubing but not much more.
Also, when welding to corten, I have heard that 7018 or 8018 is fine but that really you should be using a ER805-ni1 or other rod specifically made for strength, corrosion resistance and color match. What says the forum?
Thanks
Those are ASTM specifications. The numbers are nothing more than "names" so you (or any one else) can reference the ASTM Standards to find out the particulars of the base metals in question. The ASTM specification will tell you what the material is made from; rimmed, capped, killed, fully killed steel, the melting method; open hearth, or electric furnace; product form; pipe, tube, structural shape, plate, etc., mechanical properties; tensile strength, yield strength, eleongation, chemistry; the ranges for carbon, manganese, chrome, etc.
The numbers are not based on any rational system, that is they do not tell you anything about the base metal. Unlike the AISI/SAE numbering system that is based on chemistry, the ASTM specifications provide more information, but you have to look in the specification to find that information.
The best you can do is distinguish between the ferrous metals and nonferrous metals. All the ferrous metals are listed as A-XXX, and all the nonferrous metals are listed as B-XXX.
Best regards - Al
Materials under ASTM specs are designated and manufactured generally with end users in mind. Therefore, the specification will often tell you the end use intended, i.e. cold temp, high temp, fine grained, pressure vessel plate, pipe, tubing, etc. Or sometimes manufacturing processes, i.e. seamless, hot rolled, centrifugal cast, etc.
Sometimes 'materials' for different specifications may be the exact same as other 'materials' from other specs, or the exact same chemistry manufactured differently, they may even come off the same initial manufacturing line.To make it even more confusing fusion welded pipe will be made from specific plate specs. So essentially a particular pipe will really be a particular plate, its grade determined by the welding process or procedure.
is there a code your working to?
A36 is a carbon steel, A572 is actually a low alloy steel but is most commonly welded with carbon steel fillers, you didn't say what grade of A513, and A500 is carbon steel tubing.
One nice thing about ASTM Specs is that they all start out with a scope the tells you exactly what the spec covers. As mentioned previously, some cover materials (like carbon steel), and some cover products (like pipe). You can download individual ASTM specs over the internet, but it'll cost you around $35 U.S. each.
Bob
"Cor-ten" is a trade name for weathering steel, usually ASTM A 588, and if it's going to be an exposed application then yes, you should use the 80-ksi electrodes designed for weathering steel. Check D1.5 Table 4.3 for a list. For stick they recommend C1, C1L, C2, C2L, C3, or W. (D1.5 translation: ASTM A 709 Gr. 50W is pretty much the same as A 588, and Gr. 50 is like A 572 Gr. 50.)
As someone else said, there's no method to the madness of the numbering system. It's whatever number was available when they wrote the spec. A 36 is the only one where the number happens to be the same as the grade.
Hg
All: as I read Rebekah's request, it is asking if there is any logic to the numbering scheme, a question I've been asking myself for many years, but have yet to find a straight answer on... to the best of my knowledge, Al said it best when he mentioned the best one can do is distinquish between ferrous and nonferrous. I'd absolutely love to hear if there is really a scheme to the numbering sequence, but there isn't to my knowledge...
HgTx is correct on the "C" suffixes for color matching for the cor-tens.
The letters mean something. Steel and iron are A, except that some (but not all) fasteners are F. Here is a list of committees:
http://astm.org/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/COMMIT/newcommit.html?L+mystore+jipt8704+1191447715Someone got cute with A 36, but for the rest, the numbers mean nothing; they were just the next available number when the standard was published. The only thing they're good for is to get a relative idea of when they were introduced.
A 36: 1960
A 53: 1915
A 192: 1936
A 242: 1941
A 500: 1964
A 513: 1964
A 572: 1966
A 588: 1968
A 709: 1974
A 992: 1998
Hg
Letter A designates a ferrous material. Letter B designates a non ferrous material.
Other than that, as Al correctly pointed out, ASTM designation doesn't stand for any particular property like chemical composition, ultimate strength etc.
ASTM numbering is a purely sequential one. A 36, for example, means that this standard comes after A 35 and before A 37.
Giovanni S. Crisi
Sao Paulo - Brazil
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