What is the “Material Grade” & Why is it Important?
Material Grade is usually in the form of a series of letters or combination of letters and numbers. It indicates the purpose of use and mechanical properties, as well as chemical composition of a material. The material grade applies to all forms of metals and alloys. Standards, such as ANSI and ASME, require MTRs to ensure that manufacturers are working with materials suited for their intended purpose. Failure to accurately communicate a material’s physical and chemical properties can lead to issues that may result in catastrophic failure or even loss of life. For this reason, knowing your material grade is very important.
Heat Codes
All Texas Flange products come with heat codes for trace-ability. Each code references a “heat”; a single grouping of forgings created from the same piece of billet in one forging session. Essentially, the heat code is the “DNA” or “fingerprint” of sorts for our products. Heat codes identify the physical and chemical composition of our flanges or custom components.
Along with the “heat”, mills forge an extra piece, often referred to as the “test piece” or “coupon”. Subsequently, this piece then undergoes “crashing” or destructive testing per ASME code to obtain physical traits. Chemistry values include the percentage of alloying elements such as Carbon, Chromium, Nickel, Sulfur, Phosphorus, Aluminum, and other alloys. Material Test Reports (MTRs) include physical values with respect to the requirements of the material. For example, some flanges undergo heat treatment processes like normalization or quenching and tempering, and as ASME flanges in pressure classes 400# and above require ASTM A105 carbon steel flanges to be heat treated automatically per code, this information would be included in the report.
Material Test Reports
In addition to heat codes, an MTR helps you understand the quality of material you’ve received. Material Test Reports are a quality assurance document that certifies a material complies with specific standards (such as ANSI, ASME, etc). Here at Texas Flange we provide all flanges or other components with MTRs per EN10204 3.1* at no additional charge. We ship Material Test Reports with your order or email copies directly to you at your request. Additionally, if you need a Certificate of Conformance for your order, we will provide this free of charge as well. Quality is critical in our service of providing materials for pressure vessels, refineries, offshore and onshore rigs, pipelines, and a seemingly endless number of alternate industrial applications. Therefore, our number one focus is making sure you get the flanges you need per your requirements. We take that responsibility very seriously.
Give us a call at 281-484-8325 or shoot us an email at [email protected] with any questions or concerns on your order.
Don’t forget to check out our other free online resources!