---
title: "How to Write a Stainless Steel Bar Enquiry (RFQ)"
source: "https://www.laxconsteels.com/stainless-steel-bar-enquiry-rfq/"
description: "The ten items a stainless steel bar enquiry states: grade and standard, form, size, tolerance, condition, length, quantity, tests, certificate and packing."
---
# How to Write an Enquiry for Stainless Steel Bar

Published 4 September 2026 7 min read

An enquiry for stainless steel bar is quotable when it states ten things: the grade and the standard it is ordered under, the product form, the size, the tolerance or finishing route, the delivery condition, the length, the quantity, the testing and inspection required, the certificate type, and the packing and delivery point. An enquiry that leaves any of them out is answered with a question rather than a price, and the days lost to that exchange are the commonest cause of a late delivery on a bar order. This article sets out each item, the form in which a mill reads it, and what the usual omissions cost.

## The ten items

*The ten items of a complete stainless steel bar enquiry*

| Item | State it as | If it is missing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Grade and standard | AISI 316L to ASTM A276, or 1.4404 to EN 10088-3 | "SS 316" is quoted as 316, and 316L or 316Ti was wanted |
| Product form | Round bar, hexagon, square, flat, angle, channel, threaded bar | A flat is quoted as a bar of the same width |
| Size | Diameter, across flats, side, or width x thickness, in millimetres, with the inch equivalent if the drawing is imperial | 50.8 mm (2 inch) is supplied as 50 mm |
| Tolerance or route | h9 cold drawn, k12 peeled, h7 ground, or EN 10060 hot rolled | The quote assumes drawn; a ground bar costs more and the price changes |
| Delivery condition | Solution annealed; annealed and pickled; quenched and tempered to a hardness; H1025 aged | The certificate shows properties for a condition the part was not designed on |
| Length | Fixed 6,000 mm, or random 3 to 6 m, or cut pieces of 850 mm plus 5 mm | Random lengths are supplied and the cutting plan does not work |
| Quantity | In kilograms or tonnes, with the number of pieces if it matters | A quantity in pieces without a length cannot be weighed or priced |
| Testing and inspection | Ultrasonic to the named acceptance standard; eddy current; PMI; intergranular corrosion test; third-party witness | The bar ships untested and the customer's inspector rejects it on arrival |
| Certificate | EN 10204 type 2.2 test report, or type 3.1 inspection certificate, or type 3.2 with the third party named | A 2.2 is issued where the end customer's quality plan needed a 3.1 |
| Packing and delivery | Bundle weight, wrapping, wooden case to ISPM 15 for export, Incoterm and destination | Bundles arrive that the customer's crane cannot lift, or the price excludes freight the buyer assumed |

## Grade and standard

A grade name alone is not a specification. AISI 304 names a composition family; ASTM A276, ASTM A479 and EN 10088-3 are three different documents that each state a composition window, a delivery condition and a set of mechanical properties for it, and a bar can conform to one without conforming to another. The enquiry states the grade and the standard together, and adds the low-carbon or stabilised variant where the part will be welded: 304L rather than 304, 316L or 316Ti rather than 316. Where the drawing was made in Europe it will say 1.4301, 1.4307, 1.4401 or 1.4404 rather than 304, 304L, 316 or 316L; the [equivalents table](https://www.laxconsteels.com/grades/equivalents/) maps the two systems, and the composition windows differ slightly, so the standard actually named on the drawing is the one to quote. In the Indian trade "304 quality" and "316 quality" mean the grade and not a quality level, and a mill reads them as such, but the standard still has to be stated.

## Form, size and tolerance

The form and the size are stated in millimetres, with the inch designation alongside where the drawing is imperial, because 2 inch is 50.8 mm and a 50 mm bar will not clean up to it. The tolerance is the item most often left out. Bright bar is supplied to h7, h8, h9, h10 and h11 drawn or ground, to k12 and k13 peeled, and to the j6, f7 and f8 fits ground for shafting, and the price differs between them; an enquiry that says "bright" and nothing more is quoted at the cheapest route and repriced later. Hot rolled bar is stated by its standard, EN 10060 or ASTM A484, and the machining allowance the customer will add is the customer's business. The [tolerance class reference](https://www.laxconsteels.com/stainless-steel-bar-tolerance-classes/) gives the deviation in millimetres for each class at each size.

## Delivery condition and length

The delivery condition fixes the mechanical properties the certificate will show. Austenitic bar is normally solution annealed; martensitic bar is ordered annealed for machining or quenched and tempered to a hardness range for service; precipitation hardening bar is ordered solution treated (Condition A) or aged to a named condition such as H1025 or H1150. A hot rolled bar is annealed and pickled or supplied black. The length is stated as fixed, random within a range, or cut to a piece length with its tolerance, and for a cut piece the tolerance is stated as plus only where the customer faces the ends. Lengths above 6 metres and cut pieces below 500 mm are quoted separately because both change the handling.

## Testing, certificate and packing

Every heat is analysed by spectrometer and every lot is tensile tested; the enquiry states anything beyond that. Ultrasonic testing is ordered by naming the acceptance standard and the flat-bottom-hole or notch size, not by the word alone. Eddy current testing on bright bar, intergranular corrosion testing to ASTM A262 or ISO 3651, hardness surveys, impact testing at a temperature, positive material identification on every bar, and witness inspection by a third party are each stated where the end customer's quality plan requires them, because each adds time and each appears on the certificate only when it was ordered. The certificate type is stated by its EN 10204 number: a type 2.2 test report gives results from non-specific inspection, a type 3.1 inspection certificate gives results from the specific lot supplied and is validated by the manufacturer's inspection department, and a type 3.2 adds a third-party inspector named in the order. Packing is stated as bundle weight and wrapping, or wooden case to ISPM 15 for export, and delivery as an Incoterm and a named place, so that the price and the freight are not assumed differently by the two parties.

## A complete enquiry line

The ten items fit on two lines. "Stainless steel round bar, AISI 316L to ASTM A276, 50 mm diameter, cold drawn h9, solution annealed, fixed length 6,000 mm plus 50 mm minus 0, 4.8 tonnes (approximately 52 bars), ultrasonic tested to ASTM A388 with a 3 mm flat-bottom-hole reference, PMI on every bar, EN 10204 type 3.1 certificate, bundles of 1,000 kg maximum in HDPE wrapping, CIF Rotterdam." A mill reads that line and prices it the same day. The same order stated as "316 bright bar 50 mm 5 tonnes" is priced after four questions and three days.

## Sending an enquiry to Laxcon

Laxcon Steels quotes bar enquiries against its published ranges: [hot rolled round bar](https://www.laxconsteels.com/products/hot-rolled-round-bars/) 16 to 125 mm, [bright bar](https://www.laxconsteels.com/products/bright-bars/) 5 to 115 mm, [precision shaft quality bar](https://www.laxconsteels.com/products/precision-shaft-quality-psq-bars/) 8 to 81 mm, [hexagon](https://www.laxconsteels.com/products/hexagonal-bright-bars/) 15 to 52 mm, [square](https://www.laxconsteels.com/products/square-bright-bars/) 12.7 to 55 mm, [flat](https://www.laxconsteels.com/products/hrap-flat-bars/) to 150 mm wide, [equal angle](https://www.laxconsteels.com/products/hrap-equal-angles/) to 127 mm, [channel](https://www.laxconsteels.com/products/channels/) to 101.6 mm, and [threaded bar](https://www.laxconsteels.com/products/threaded-bars/) M6 to M45. Composition windows for every grade rolled are in the [grade reference](https://www.laxconsteels.com/grades/), and the [weight calculator](https://www.laxconsteels.com/weight-calculator/) converts pieces and lengths to the tonnage the enquiry should state. Enquiries go through the [contact page](https://www.laxconsteels.com/contact/), and a drawing or a specification sheet is sent to the sales address given there.

## Sources

- EN 10204, Metallic products, types of inspection documents.
- ASTM A276/A276M, Standard Specification for Stainless Steel Bars and Shapes; ASTM A484/A484M, General Requirements for Stainless Steel Bars, Billets, and Forgings.
- EN 10088-3, Stainless steels, technical delivery conditions for semi-finished products, bars, rods, wire, sections and bright products for general purposes.
- ASTM A388/A388M, Standard Practice for Ultrasonic Examination of Steel Forgings; ASTM A262, Standard Practices for Detecting Susceptibility to Intergranular Attack in Austenitic Stainless Steels.
- ISPM 15, Regulation of wood packaging material in international trade.