Decoiling Information Sheet

This information sheet provides guidance on the requirement for the sampling and testing of decoiled material. Proposals within the forthcoming European Standard for Reinforcing Steel, EN10080, place the responsibility for compliance with the properties of decoiled material with the processor of that material. The recent revision of the Steel for the Reinforcement of Concrete Scheme manual takes this into account. It is addressed in Appendix 2 – 2.4 vi which states “the processor shall operate a documented procedure which assures that all decoiled material continues to meet the dimensional and standard mechanical property requirements of the relevant British Standard. Mechanical testing, which forms part of this procedure, shall be performed in a UKAS (NAMAS) approved laboratory or a CARES approved company.

Bearing in mind the requirements of EN 10080 CARES have adopted a pragmatic approach to the sampling and testing of decoiled material. Each fabricator shall be responsible for developing and implementing a procedure that identifies and addresses the key variables of the process. There are two generic decoiling processes, ‘spinner’ and ‘roller’ straightening, for the decoiling of reinforcing bar, in the size range 6 to 16 mm. Other variables that should be considered are the manufacturing process of the steel, i.e. quench and self-tempered, micro alloyed or cold stretched, the diameter of the steel and the machine settings. The procedure shall include mechanical testing at an appropriate frequency to ensure that all decoiled material continues to meet the dimensional and standard mechanical property requirements of the relevant British Standard.

For your information the requirements of the latest draft of EN 10080 are as follows:

The processor shall operate a documented procedure which assures that the decoiled material continues to meet the mechanical property requirements of this European Standard (EN 10080).

This procedure shall include the following:

i) visual inspection of every coil processed. For ribbed steel, a rib height or indentation depth measurement on at least one sample per day and/or at each size change.

ii) sampling and testing of the decoiled product at a frequency of one sample per diameter and machine per week.

Products shall be sampled and tested from each machine of the decoiler and from each coil processing route. Samples shall be selected for test from one coil each from the largest and smallest diameter produced.

Tests shall be performed on the samples at the frequency defined in Table 1.

Table 1 : Type and number of tests for initial testing and continuous surveillance

The standard properties defined in Table 2 shall be determined.

N.B. Fatigue testing – five samples shall be taken from each production site from one decoiling machine per type from the largest diameter being processed.’

Inspection	Diameter	Frequency
Initial Assessment	Smallest and largest of the diameter range	3 casts per diameter from each coil processing route
Surveillance Inspection	One diameter	3 casts per diameter from one coil processing route

Property	Number of tests per coil (rod, wire)
Cross sectional area and mass	3
Rm	3
Re	3
Rm/Re	3
A5 and Agt	3
Rebend	3
Geometry	1
Chemistry (incl. CEV)	1
Visual rib inspection	3