ASTM's steel standards are instrumental in classifying, evaluating, and specifying the material, chemical, mechanical, and metallurgical properties of the different types of steels, which are primarily used in the production of mechanical components, industrial parts, and construction elements, as well as other accessories related to them. The steels can be of the carbon, structural, stainless, ferritic, austenitic, and alloy types.
These steel standards are helpful in guiding metallurgical laboratories and refineries, product manufacturers, and other end-users of steel and its variants in their proper processing and application procedures to ensure quality towards safe use. A pipe is a tubular section or hollow cylinder, usually but not necessarily of circular cross-section, used mainly to convey substances which can flow — liquids and gases (fluids), slurries, powders, masses of small solids. It can also be used for structural applications; hollow pipe is far stiffer per unit weight than solid members.