SAE material or metric material
SAE material or metric material
(OP)
We work for a Japanese company and deal a lot with Japanese drawings that, of course, use metric material (plate thickness, round and rectangular tubing, structural steel, etc.)Is metric material readily available in the USA or should it be converted to SAE (inch) material? I have had occasions when converting metric parts to inch, it affects the form and function of how some parts will fit together. If metric material is easily obtainable, it is sometimes best to stay metric. Please let me know your thoughts on this matter.
Respectfully,
Jeff T.
Respectfully,
Jeff T.





RE: SAE material or metric material
Otherwise, you'll have to do some form/fit/tolerance analysis & investigation.
So, if the drawing calls up metric stock and it's readily available for reasonable cost I'd say it's plan A.
However, more I think about it you should probably look up what the STOCK tolerances are assuming that's how the material is designated on the Japanese drawings, rather than an explicit tolerance given on the drawing. If you have an explicit tolerance on the drawing I assume you wouldn't be asking this question.
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: SAE material or metric material
TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering
www.bluetechnik.com
RE: SAE material or metric material
You will find some oddities, your drawing calls for 6mm, and people will quote you 0.236".
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P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube
RE: SAE material or metric material
I make this decision on a case-by-case basis. Unfortunately, for me, that's how it must be done.
RE: SAE material or metric material
Did the Japanese specify stock, or did they specify thicknesses, with tolerances?
This is why you design sheet metal to be fairly insensitive to the actual thickness.
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JHG
RE: SAE material or metric material
This was twenty years ago and metric material was not readily available. We found it better to machine everything from inch down to the correct metric size. No more problems after that.
RE: SAE material or metric material
Thanks again,
Jeff