Steel Identification Colour Coding System

[Brendanlez]

Hi, I am new to this forum.
I am heading the implementation of ISO at our company here in Ireland.
We manufacture deck equipment for fishing trawlers and other vessels.
I have just come to the problem of a colour coding system for the identification of the different grades of steel and was wondering if anyone could help me with this. Is there a standard marking for the different grades or do suppliers generally just use their own markings

Thanks in advance
Brendan

 

[SteelMaiden]

Re: Steel Identification

I know that there are color codes for bundles of cold finished steel bar stock, but we don't color code steel plate. So, it would seem that color coding of steel is not a given for all steel products. Can you check with your suppliers? (my guess is that if you don't know them, there aren't standardized colors for the product that you are buying)

 

[Tom Banks]

Re: Steel Identification

There appears to be some colors that will be used consistently by some steel suppliers however most organizations will come up with their own color code program. Be careful however, this can become a nightmare to manage and costly in the long term because housing the different colors of paint, making sure people are not color blind(meaning you will to color blind test everyone in your facility and keep those records), periodic evaluations to ensure proper use of colors, etc...

Some companies I have audited have developed a code system with numbers and letters in place of color coding but it still has issues, I have also seen bar coding programs but it also has some issues, pick what best fits your environment.

What ever you do try to keep it simple and what ever you do make it easy to relate it back to the supplier of the steel received for traceability purposes.

Hope this helps...

 

[Brendanlez]

We have found that there is not a standard for this but we use a few different grades of steel and it is critical for some products such as the cranes, Llyods certification doesnt even state anything about this. My fear is that an auditor will pick on this just for something to give out about

 

[Rich Shippy]

We are a steel service center in the US, we use spray paint color coding for all of our materials, and it works fairly well. We also mark heat #'s on all of the material, and associated documentation for traceability purposes as well.I don't believe there is a standardized color code system. Hope that helped.


Rich