AA: Aluminum Association

AAR: Association of American Railroads

ABS: American Bureau of Shipbuilding

ACD: Annealed and Cold Drawn

ACDQ: Accelerated Cooling Direct Quench

ACI: Alloy Casting Institute

ADI: Austempered Ductile Iron

AFNOR: Association Francaise de Normalisation

AGA: American Gas Association

AISI: American Iron and Steel Institute

AMS: Aerospace Materials Specifications

AOD: Argon Oxygen Decarburization

API: American Petroleum Institute

AQ: Aircraft Quality

AREA: American Railway Engineering Association

ASCE: American Society of Civil Engineers

ASIE: American Society of Industrial Engineers

ASM: American Society for Metals (now ASM International)

ASME: American Society of Mechanical Engineers

ASQ: Aircraft Structural Quality

ASQ: Axle Shaft Quality

ASTM: American Society for Testing and Materials

AWWA: American Water Works Association

BH: Bake Hardenable (Steel)

BSI: British Standards Institute

BSSA: British Stainless Steel Association

CD: Cold Drawn

CDA: Copper Development Association

CERF: Civil Engineering Research Foundation

CF: Cold Formed or Cold Finished

CHQ: Cold Heading Quality

COF: Coefficient of Friction

CQ: Commercial Quality

CR: Cold Rolled

CRES: Corrosion REsistant Steel

CS: Commercial Steel

CSA: Canadian Standards Associates

CTE: Coefficient of Thermal Expansion

CVD: Chemical Vapor Deposition

CW: Cold Worked

D Steel: Dual Phase Steel

DA: Duplex Annealed

DDQ: Deep Drawing Quality

DDS: Deep Drawing Steel

DIN: Deutches Institut für Normung

DIPRA: Ductile Iron Pipe Research Association

DIS: Ductile Iron Society

DMLS: Direct Metal Laser Sintering (Rapid Protoyping/3D Printing Technique)

DOE: Department of Energy (US Government)

DQ: Drawing Quality

DQSK: Drawing Quality Special Killed

DR: Dent Resistant (Steel)

DS: Drawing Steel

EDDQ: Extra Deep Drawing Quality

EDDS: Extra Deep Drawing Steel

ELI: Extra Low Interstitial

EMI: Electromagnetic Interference

EPA: Environmental Protection Agency (US Government)

ERW: Electrical Resistance Welding

ESCR: Environmental Stress Cracking Resistance

ESR: Electroslag Remelting

FDA: Food and Drug Administration (US Government)

FED: Federal Specification Number

FM: Factory Mutual

Frg: Forging

GMAW: Gas Metal Arc Welding

GP: General Purpose

GTAW: Gas Tungsten Arc Welding

HAZ: Heat Affected Zone (welding/joining)

HB: Brinell Hardness Number

HE: Hot Extruded

HF: Hot Finished

HIP: Hot Isostatic Pressing

HR: Hot Rolled

HRA: Rockwell A Hardness Number

HRB: Rockwell B Hardness Number

HRC: Rockwell C Hardness Number

HRPO: “Hot Rolled: Pickled and Oiled”

HSLA: High Strength Low Alloy (Steel)

HSS: Hollow Structural Steel

HT: Heat Treated

HV: Vickers Hardness

HW: Hot Worked or Hot Wrought

ISO: International Standards Organization

JIS: Japan Industrial Standard

ksi: 1000 pounds per square inch (kilo-psi)

MASH: Mean Apparent Specific Heat

MIL SPEC: Military Specification Number

MIM: Metal Injection Molding

MMA: Manual Metal Arc Welding

MMC: Metal Matrix Composite

MSE: Materials Science and Engineering

NACE: National Association of Corrosion Engineers

NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (US)

NB: No Break (Applied to Impact Test Results)

NCD: Normalized and Cold Drawn

NHT: Not Heat Treated

NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology

NSF: National Sanitation Foundation (nonregulatory agency)

OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer

OSHA: Occupation Safety and Health Administration (US Government)

PH: Precipitation Hardened

PHT: Precipitation Heat Treated

PM (P/M): Powder Metallurgy

POP: Point of Purchase (Marketing Displays)

PVQ: Pressure Vessel Quality

QA: Quenched and Aged

QT: Quenched and Tempered

RQ: Regular Quality

RT: Room Temperature

S Steel: Structural Quality Grade Steel

SA: Solution Annealed

SACD: Spheroidized Annealed and Cold Drawn

SAE: Society of Automotive Engineers

SCHQ: Special Cold Heading Quality

SHT: Solution Heat Treated

SLM: Selective Laser Melting (Rapid Protoyping/3D Printing Technique)

SLS: Selective Laser Sintering (Rapid Protoyping/3D Printing Technique)

SMA: Shape Memory Alloy

SMAW: Shielded Metal Arc Welding

Smls: Seamless

SQ: Saw Quality

SQ: Solution Quenched

SQ: Structural Quality

SQA: Solution Quenched and Annealed

SR: Stress Relieved

SS: Stainless Steel

SS: Structural Steel

STA: Solution Treated and Aged

STOA: Solution Treated and Overaged

TA: Triplex Annealed

TC: Tungsten Carbide

TCT: Tungsten Carbide Tipped

TYS: Tensile Yield Strength

UNI: Ente Nationale Italiano di Unificazione (Italian standards body)

UNS: Unified Numbering System

UTS: Ultimate Tensile Strength

VAR: Vacuum Arc Remelting

VCD: Vacuum Carbon Deoxidation

VIM: Vacuum Induction Melting

W Steel: Weathering Grade Steel

WC: Tungsten Carbide

X Steel: Low Alloy Grade Steel