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If you've ever received a spec that says ASTM A36 while your supplier quotes S275JR, you know the moment of dread: are these actually equivalent, or am I about to spec the wrong material into a load-bearing structure?
Most engineers resolve this with a bookmark tab open to five different standards lookup sites, a PDF from 2009, and a prayer. It's slow, error-prone, and the "winner" is usually whichever site ranks first — not whichever grade is chemically and mechanically right for the job.
I got tired of it, so I built a dataset.
What I actually built
A cross-reference database of 217 steel and alloy grades, each normalized against five standards systems: ASTM, EN (European Norm), JIS, GB (Chinese), and IS (Indian).
For every grade you get:
- Yield strength and tensile strength
- Density and the standardized designation
- Up to 5 international equivalents across different standards systems
- Chemical composition and physical properties on the detail page
It's not a static sheet — every grade has its own rendered detail page, and related grades are cross-linked. You can land on a material, jump to its international equivalents, and compare any two side by side.
The part I'm most proud of: the comparisons
A dataset of raw numbers is only useful if you can actually weigh the difference. So I built a material comparison engine that renders side-by-side mechanical properties, chemical composition, and international equivalents for any two grades — plus a full steel grade comparison guide to navigate the standards maze.
The practical questions engineers actually Google — answered with data, not vibes:
- 304 vs 316L stainless steel: when does the molybdenum premium actually pay off for chloride exposure?
- Inconel 625 vs 718: corrosion workhorse vs aged high-strength turbine alloy — they cost the same, so price is not the tiebreaker.
- 6061 vs 7075 aluminum: weldable workhorse vs high-strength aerospace grade — and why the 45% weight win usually justifies the cost.
- ASTM A36 vs A572: when does the 38% higher yield strength actually pay for itself against the per-kg premium?
Each comparison includes a Quick Verdict (which to pick and why), a decision checklist, and — the thing I couldn't find anywhere else — a price-per-kg comparison so you can see whether the engineering choice and the budget math align.
Where the data lives
The dataset is available as a machine-readable file so you can pull it into your own tooling:
- steel-grade-dataset.json on GitHub — MIT-licensed, ready to drop into your own lookup tool or API.
- Browse all cross-referenced comparisons on the live site
- Start from the steel grade comparison guide if you're new to navigating the standards maze
A few honest caveats
- This dataset is for reference and cross-checking, not a substitute for a Mill Test Report (MTR) or a licensed engineer's sign-off.
- Steel grades that appear equivalent on strength often differ on impact toughness, weldability, or corrosion behavior — that's exactly why the comparison pages exist.
- Standards get updated; always verify against the latest published revision before a procurement decision.
If you do procurement, design, or fabrication work and you're tired of the "which standard is equivalent" guessing game, give the dataset a spin and let me know if there's a grade or comparison you want added.
