Metal Abbreviations

The metal industry uses a lot of abbreviations and short forms of common qualities, definitions, and terms.

We have compiled a list of some of the most common abbreviations which describe differences in chemical and mechanical metal compositions. These abbreviations are following the most popular metal grade standards used in EMEA.

If you want to learn more about the different steel grades, standards and why they are used, please click here.

Metal designation abbreviations Heat Treatment, Surface Coating, Surface Type, Surface Treatment
Abbreviation Full Description
Heat Treatment
+A Soft annealed
+AC Annealed to achieve spheroidization of the carbides
+AR As rolled
+AT Solution annealed
+C Cold drawn / hard
+Cnnn Cold work hardened with a minimum tensile strength of nnn Mpa
+CPnnn Cold work hardened with a minimum 0.2% proof strength of nnn MPa
+CR Cold rolled
+DC Delivery condition at manufacturer's discretion
+FP Treated to ferrite-pearlite structure and hardness range
+HC Hot rolled followed by cold hardening
+I Isothermal annealing
+LC Cold drawn / soft
+M Thermo-mechanical rolling
+N Normalized
+NT Normalized and tempered
+P Precipitation hardened
+PE Peeled
+Q Quenched
+QA Air quenched and tempered
+QL Liquid quenched and tempered
+QO Oil quenched
+QT Quenched and tempered
+QW Water quenched
+RA Recrystallization annealed
+S Treated to improve shearability
+SH As rolled and turned
+SR Cold drawn and stress relieved
+SRA Stress relieve annealing
+T Tempered
+TH Treated to hardness range
+U Untreated
+WW Warm worked
Surface Coating
+A Hot dip aluminium coating
+AS Aluminium silicon alloy coating
+AZ Aluminium zinc alloy (>50% Al) coating
+CE Electrolytic chromium/chromium oxide coating (ECCS)
+CU Copper coating
+GI Hot-dip zinc (galvanised) coating
+IC Inorganic coating
+OC Organic coating
+S Hot-dip tin coating
+SE Electrolytic tin coating
+T Hot-dip lead tin alloy (terne) coating
+TE Electrolytic lead tin alloy (terne) coating
+Z Hot-dip zinc (galvanised) coating
+ZA Hot-dip zinc aluminium (>50% Zn) coating
+ZE Electrolytic zinc coating
+ZF Hot-dip zinc iron (galvannealed) coating
+ZM Hot-dip zinc magnesium coating
+ZN Electrolytic zinc nickel alloy coating
Surface Type
A Conventional surface
B Improved surface
C Best surface
b Bright
g Semi-bright
E Exposed (external parts)
U Unexposed (internal parts)
M Minimized spangle
N Normal spangle
m Normal
r Rough
Surface Treatment
C Chemically passivated
CO Chemically passivated and oiled
O Oiled
P Phosphated
PC Phosphated and chemically passivated
PCO Phosphated, chemically passivated and oiled
PO Phosphated and oiled
S Sealed
U Without surface treatment
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