The most common problem we find our customers is being faced with the daunting task navigating through all of the different fastener standards.
With standards such as ASTM, ANSI, SAE, ASME and more, where is one to start when trying to figure out what it what? A customer was recently looking for a stainless steel part that conformed to the ASTM A493 standard, and he sent the print to us to see if we could quote him. Looking at the item, we were indeed able to quote it and we sent him the info and stated that it conformed to both the ASTM F593 and ASTM A493 standard.
Our customer was confused until we explained that the ASTM A493 standard describes the stainless steel wire rod used in the manufacturing of this part, while the ASTM F593 standard describes the part dimensionally.
As such, the customer could indeed use the part! They had been having a tough time locating the part because they were looking for something that only conformed to the ASTM A493 standard.
The bottom line is that if you don’t understand what the standards are it can make it that much more difficult to find the product you are looking for!
For more information about ASTM standards take a look at the ASTM page on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASTM_International