Boiler and boiler tube industry abbreviations and their definitions.
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