1. Scope

Keywords

Rationale

Cold-Formed Structural Stainless Tubing in Rounds and Shapes has been manufactured for at least 45 years, but to date there has never been a stand-alone ASTM Specification covering this product. Producers have been certifying to a mechanical tube specification (ASTM A554) as structural stainless tube. However, A554 does not include mandatory requirements needed for structural tubing, such as cold-forming, weld performance qualification testing, and testing of the mechanical properties of the final tube. These requirements cannot be made mandatory in A554 because they will curtail the production of other A554 products, such as ornamental, exhaust, and other applications where structural properties are not critical. The cold-forming process is an important component to developing mechanical property levels which can be used to advantage in structural design calculations. This standard will provide a table of suitable alloys and a table of mechanical properties for the final product. Weld performance qualification testing as well as final product mechanical properties testing are addressed. Product size ranges and applicable tolerances are provided. This standard will be the stainless steel equivalent to ASTM A500, which covers cold-formed welded carbon steel structural tubing in rounds and shapes.