ASTM A540 Standard for Alloy-Steel Bolting special application

ASTM A540 Standard Specification for Alloy-Steel Bolting for Special Applications covers regular and special-quality alloy steel boting materials which may be used for nuclear and other special applications. Bolting materials as used in this specification cover rolled or forged bars, rotary pierced or extruded seamless tubes, bored bars, or forged hollows from forged or rolled bar segments to be manufactured into bolts, studs, washers, and nuts.

Several grades of steel are covered. The grade and class shall be specified by the purchaser.

Supplementary requirements of an optional nature are provided for use when special quality is desired. These supplementary requirements call for additional tests to be made and when desired. shall be so stated in the order, together with the acceptance limits required.

This specification is expressed in both inch-pound units and in SI units. However, unless the order specifies the applicable "M" specification designation (SI units), the material shall be furnished to inch-pound units.

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

2.Referenced Documents

2.1 ASTM Sandards:
ASTM A 370 Test Methods and Definitions for Mechanical Testing of Steel Products 
E 30 Test Methods for chemical analysis of steel, cast Iron, Open-Hearth Iron, and Wrought Iron 
E 45 Practice for Determining the Inclusion Content of Steel
E 59 Practice for Sampling Steel and Iron for Determina-tion of Chemical Composition
E 381 Method of Macroetch Testing, Inspection, and Rating Steel Products, Comprising Bars, Billets, Blooms, and forgings

3. Ordering Information
3.1 Orders for material under this specification shall in-clude the following, as required, to describe the desired material adequately 
3.1.1 Quantity (feet or number of lengths),
3.1.2 Size (diameter and length)
3.1.3 Specification designation,
3.1.4 Grade (Table 1),
3.1.5 condition (Section 4) ,
3.1.6 Heat treatment (Section 5),
3.1.7 Class (Section 8),
3.1.8 Supplementary Requirements (S1 to S9),
3.1.9 Reports required (Section 19),
3.1.10 End use,and
3.1.11 Any special requirements.

4.Manufacture

4.1 The steel shall be produced by any of the following primary processes: open-hearth, basic-oxygen, electric-furnace, or vacuum-induction meting ( VIM ). The primary melting may incorporate separate degassing or refining The molten steel may be vacuum-treated prior to or during pouring of the ingot. Secondary processes are also permitted whereby steels made from these primary processes are remelted using electroslag-remelting, or vacuum-arc re-melting preocesses. The basic oxygen process shall be limited to steel containing not over 6 % chromium.
4.2 The material shall be supplied hot-rolled or hot-forged or cold-finished at the option of the producer. However, if desired by the purchaser, cold finishing may be specified.

5. Heat Treatment
5.1 Material which is ordered in the annealed condition shall have a structure suitable for machining. Such annealed bolting material is not intended to be used without subse-quent quenching and tempering as specified in 5.2.
5.2 Material which is ordered in the liquid-quenched and tempered condition shall be uniformly reheated from a temperature below the cooling transformation range to the proper austenitizing temperature. It shall be quenched in a liquid medium under substantially uniform conditions and then uniformly reheated for tempering. The minimum tempering temperature shall be 850.[455]. 
5.3 Material that has been straightened after quenching and tempering shall be stress relieved by reheating to a temperature not lower than 100[55∩] under the tem-pering temperature.