This guide covers a group of requirements for carbon and alloy steel bars under each of the following specifications: hot-rolled carbon steel bars, cold-finished carbon steel bars, hot-rolled alloy steel bars, and cold-finished alloy steel bars. Heat and product analysis shall be performed on several grades of carbon steel bars, wherein the material shall conform to the required chemical composition for carbon, manganese, phosphorus, and sulfur. Several grades of alloy steel bars shall also undergo heat and product analysis and shall meet the required chemical composition for carbon, manganese, phosphorus, sulfur, silicon, nickel, chromium, and molybdenum. When compositions other than those indicated in the specified chemical components are required, the composition limits shall be prepared using the specified ranges and limits for carbon steel and alloy steel. The material shall undergo grain size test and shall conform to the specified grain size requirement. Mechanical tests shall also be performed on the steel test specimens.

1.1 This specification covers a group of common requirements which, unless otherwise specified in the purchase order or in an individual specification, shall apply to carbon and alloy steel bars under each of the following ASTM specifications (or under any other ASTM specification which invokes this specification or portions thereof):

1.2 In case of any conflict in requirements, the requirements of the purchase order, the individual material specification, and this general specification shall prevail in the sequence named.

1.3 The values stated in inch-pound units or SI units are to be regarded as the standard. Within the text, the SI units are shown in brackets. The values stated in each system are not exact equivalents; therefore, each system must be used independently of the other. Combining values from the two systems may result in nonconformance with the specification.

1.4 For purposes of determining conformance to this specification and the various material specifications referenced in , dimensional values shall be rounded to the nearest unit in the right-hand place of figures used in expressing the limiting values in accordance with the rounding method of Practice E 29.

Specification A 29 previously listed dimensional tolerances for cold-finished bars; these are now found in Specification A 108.