| AA | Aluminum Association | 
   | AAR | Association of American Railroads | 
   | ABS | American Bureau of Shipbuilding | 
   | ACDQ | Accelerated Cooling Direct Quench | 
   | ACI | Alloy Casting Institute | 
   | ADI | Austempered Ductile Iron | 
   | AFNOR | Association Francaise de Normalisation | 
   | AGA | American Gas Association | 
   | AISI | American Iron and Steel Institute | 
   | AMS | Aerospace Materials Specifications | 
   | AOD | Argon Oxygen Decarburization | 
   | API | American Petroleum Institute | 
   | AQ | Aircraft Quality | 
   | AREA | American Railway Engineering Association | 
   | ASCE | American Society of Civil Engineers | 
   | ASIE | American Society of Industrial Engineers | 
   | ASM | American Society for Metals (now ASM International) | 
   | ASME | American Society of Mechanical Engineers | 
   | ASQ | Aircraft Structural Quality | 
   | ASQ | Axle Shaft Quality | 
   | ASTM | American Society for Testing and Materials | 
   | AWWA | American Water Works Association | 
   | BSI | British Standards Institute | 
   | BSSA | British Stainless Steel Association | 
   | CD | Cold Drawn | 
   | CDA | Copper Development Association | 
   | CERF | Civil Engineering Research Foundation | 
   | CF | Cold Formed or Cold Finished | 
   | CHQ | Cold Heading Quality | 
   | COF | Coefficient of Friction | 
   | CQ | Commercial Quality | 
   | CR | Cold Rolled | 
   | CRES | Corrosion REsistant Steel | 
   | CSA | Canadian Standards Associates | 
   | CTE | Coefficient of Thermal Expansion | 
   | CVD | Chemical Vapor Deposition | 
   | CW | Cold Worked | 
   | CW | Cold Worked | 
   | "D" Steel | Dual Phase Steel | 
   | DA | Duplex Annealed | 
   | DDQ | Deep Drawing Quality | 
   | DIN | Deutches Institut für Normung | 
   | DIPRA | Ductile Iron Pipe Research Association | 
   | DIS | Ductile Iron Society | 
   | DOE | Department of Energy (US Government) | 
   | DQ | Drawing Quality | 
   | DQSK | Drawing Quality Special Killed | 
   | EDDQ | Extra Deep Drawing Quality | 
   | ELI | Extra Low Interstitial | 
   | EMI | Electromagnetic Interference | 
   | EPA | Environmental Protection Agency (US Government) | 
   | ERW | Electrical Resistance Welding | 
   | ESCR | Environmental Stress Cracking Resistance | 
   | ESR | Electroslag Remelting | 
   | FDA | Food and Drug Administration (US Government) | 
   | FED | Federal Specification Number | 
   | FM | Factory Mutual | 
   | Frg | Forging | 
   | GP | General Purpose | 
   | HB | Brinell Hardness Number | 
   | HE | Hot Extruded | 
   | HF | Hot Finished | 
   | HIP | Hot Isostatic Pressing | 
   | HR | Hot Rolled | 
   | HRA | Rockwell A Hardness Number | 
   | HRB | Rockwell B Hardness Number | 
   | HRC | Rockwell C Hardness Number | 
   | HRPO | Hot Rolled, Pickled and Oiled | 
   | HSLA | High Strength Low Alloy | 
   | HSS | Hollow Structural Steel | 
   | HT | Heat Treated | 
   | HV | Vickers Hardness | 
   | HW | Hot Worked or Hot Wrought | 
   | ISO | International Standards Organization | 
   | JIS | Japan Industrial Standard | 
   | ksi | 1000 pounds per square inch (psi) | 
   | MASH | Mean Apparent Specific Heat | 
   | MIL SPEC | Military Specification Number | 
   | MIM | Metal Injection Molding | 
   | MMC | Metal Matrix Composite | 
   | MSE | Materials Science and Engineering | 
   | NACE | National Association of Corrosion Engineers | 
   | NASA | National Aeronautics and Space Administration (US) | 
   | NB | No Break (Applied to Impact Test Results) | 
   | NHT | Not Heat Treated | 
   | NIST | National Institute of Standards and Technology | 
   | NSF | National Sanitation Foundation (nonregulatory agency) | 
   | OEM | Original Equipment Manufacturer | 
   | OSHA | Occupation Safety and Health Administration (US Government) | 
   | PH | Precipitation Hardened | 
   | PHT | Precipitation Heat Treated | 
   | PM (P/M) | Powder Metallurgy | 
   | POP | Point of Purchase (Marketing Displays) | 
   | PVQ | Pressure Vessel Quality | 
   | QA | Quenched and Aged | 
   | QT | Quenched and Tempered | 
   | RQ | Regular Quality | 
   | RT | Room Temperature | 
   | "S" Steel | Structural Quality Grade Steel | 
   | SA | Solution Annealed | 
   | SAE | Society of Automotive Engineers | 
   | SCHQ | Special Cold Heading Quality | 
   | SHT | Solution Heat Treated | 
   | Smls | Seamless | 
   | SQ | Structural Quality | 
   | SQ | Saw Quality | 
   | SR | Stress Relieved | 
   | SS | Stainless Steel | 
   | STA | Solution Treated and Aged | 
   | STOA | Solution Treated and Overaged | 
   | TA | Triplex Annealed | 
   | TC | Tungsten Carbide | 
   | TCT | Tungsten Carbide Tipped | 
   | TYS | Tensile Yield Strength | 
   | UNI | Ente Nationale Italiano di Unificazione (Italian standards body) | 
   | UNS | Unified Numbering System | 
   | UTS | Ultimate Tensile Strength | 
   | VAR | Vacuum Arc Remelting | 
   | VCD | Vacuum Carbon Deoxidation | 
   | VIM | Vacuum Induction Melting | 
   | "W" Steel | Weathering Grade Steel | 
   | WC | Tungsten Carbide | 
   | "X" Steel | Low Alloy Grade Steel |