Letter 41053

316HQ stainless steel  

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Dear Sir/Madam

I am struggling with letters specifications stainless steel type 316HQ, what does "HQ" MEANS? and how many percent weight of copper is contained? Which standard should I refer to?

By the way, I wish to apply a membership in order to be able to use on air chat, so what can I do?

HENRY SU
STUDENT - TAINAN COUNTY, TAIWAN

Ed. note: For the chatroom please try Username: chat , Password: 5758

I believe there is no grade 316HQ. Perhaps it is a misreading of 316HC?

None of the variations on the 316 theme contains copper (except perhaps occasionally as an accidental residual and unlikely to exceed about 0.2%).

Bill Reynolds    consultant metallurgist Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

Good afternoon:

I've never heard of 316HQ, but I have heard of 302HQ, which has a small amount of copper added for improved cold formability. Are you sure that's not the grade you are looking for?

Steve Bizub
- St Louis, MO

After reading Steve's post, I googled 316HQ. 19 hits. The only one in English is the original posting on this thread.

The grade obviously does exist, and one summary suggests that it has copper and selenium as its main claim to fame.

A Chinese site refers to Custom Flo 316HQ and quotes the chemistry as 0.03 C max (which is strange in itself, as in that context "H" usually denotes closer to 0.08 C), 1.0 Si max, 2.0 Mn max, 17.0-19.0 Cr, 8.00-10.0 Ni, 3.00-4.00 Cu and makes no mention of Se.

Live and learn!!

Bill Reynolds    consultant metallurgist Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

Interesting information...I wonder if its not a discontinued grade from Carpenter Technology.
Forgot to mention earlier that HQ refers to heading quality. This is a special grade of stainless rod or wire for cold heading applications.

Steve Bizub
- St Louis, MO

Ha! The bits of information start to mesh! Letter suffixes to AISI grades usually only refer to variations or tighter ranges on the chemistry spec.

Examples are 316H (carbon high); 316L (carbon low); 316N (significant nitrogen content); 316LN (carbon low plus a significant nitrogen content). And so on for the many dozens of AISI grades of plain carbon and low alloy steels as well as high alloys such as stainless.

When HQ is used in the sense that Steve explains, referring to mechanical properties although the AISI numbers only specify chemistry, it starts a potentially messy trend, fraught with risk of misinterpretation.

However, the original poster of this question at least now has his explanation!

Bill Reynolds    consultant metallurgist Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

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