Historical grade specifications

[Coctyle]

I have been looking for chemical specifications for steel grades from the early 20th century. Specifically, I want to know what the chemical analysis limits for 1020 steel were in about 1920. Same as today, or not? ASTM only lists old standards going back to about the '90s. I have found all sorts of old manuals with structural steel beam dimensions and some physical properties, but nothing with grade chemistries going back that far. Does anyone have any resources or suggestions?

Anyone can make something work; it takes an engineer to make it barely work.

 

[EdStainless]

Have you tried contacting the Linda Hall Library?

The oldest ref that I have is 1918, and it is British.
To start with you need to know how the steel was made, Bessemer, crucible, open hearth, or electric furnace.
Nominally a 20C steel would have been about 0.65% Mn and <0.04% P and S, though these could vary a lot by production method.
I don't have any specs that old.

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P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube

 

[mrfailure]

Wikipedia notes that SAE and AISI developed their own standards that could be slightly different in the 1930s and 1940s. Do we even know if steel designated as 1020 under either system was available in 1920? May help to look in an ASTM book of standards at that time to see if any carbon steels were designated by that grade at that time.

 

[blacksmith37]

1020 is not an ASTM designation; ASTM specs would be for pipe, plate, fittings. castings , etc . But the ASTM spec A53 for pipe , as an example, would probably permit material that could be 1020 ; However the A53 spec of today will be substantially different from what it was in 1920. ASTM specs are reviewed every 5 years and may be changed at that time. ASTM will very likely have copies of these old specs but I do not know how it may be available . ASTM used to be at 1916 Race St. Philadelphia but they have moved , likely still in the Philadelphia area.

 

[mrfailure]

I only mention ASTM standards because current versions include the SAE/AISI grades in many standards. I don't know though whether standards in 1920 would have made such reference assuming that grading system even existed. I have in the past bought books of standards from that era on EBay, but I no longer have access to them.

 

[jdonville]

Contact AISC ( solutions@aisc.org ) if you are dealing with structural members to see if they can help.

AISI (

http://www.steel.org

) may be of similar help.

If you have access to the steel member(s) in question, have a chemical analysis and/or coupon testing performed to verify composition and/or tensile/yield limits. Nothing beats direct testing of what you're working with.

Note that '1020' seems likely to me to be an AISI designation.