Structural Steel Shapes

There are a wide variety of steel shapes available.  The most common shapes are listed below; however, many manufacturers have special shapes.

The nomenclature for steel shapes follows two standards:

1. For wide flange, bearing pile, S-shapes, channels, and tees: the letter indicates the shape, the first number indicates the nominal height, and the second number indicates the weight per 1 foot of length.  For instance, the W12x36 listed in the table below is a wide flange shape that has a nominal height of 12" and weighs 36 pounds per foot of length.
2. For steel tubes, pipes, plates, and angles: the 3 numbers indicate the height, width, and thickness of the steel. 

Image	Description	Nomenclature	Notes
	Wide Flange	W12x36	Flange surfaces are parallel; flange thickness is not necessarily equal to the web thickness.
	Bearing Pile	HP14x73	Flange surfaces are parallel; flange and web have equal thicknesses.
	American Standard Beam	S15x50	The inner flange surface is sloped.
	Channel	C12x30	Standard AISC flanges have sloped inner flange surfaces.
	Tee	WT12x38 ST12x38 MT12x38	WT shapes are cut from a wide flange. ST shapes are cut from American Standard Beams. MT shapes are cut from non-standard I-shapes.
	Hollow Steel Section Steel Tube	HSS12x6x0.5 TS12x6x0.5	Either nomenclature is acceptable; however, HSS is more common.
	Angle	L2x2x0.5 L6x3x0.5	Angles come in equal leg or unequal leg sizes.  The diagram at left shows an unequal leg.
	Pipe	Pipe 4 STD
	Plate	PL 0.5x12"x30"	Very small plates can also be called bars.

2004 CSI Masterspec Division

Structural Metal Framing: 05 10 00
Metal Fabrications: 05 50 00