STATUS: DRAFT

This standard describes a universal way to describe a shape.

Intend

The intend is to offer a way to classify industry standard profiles, not limited to steel, based on shape only.

The reasons for using this standard can be:

• Shapes are described not depending on manufacturing characteristics such as "warm rolling".
• Shapes are described not depending on function characteristics such as "beam".
• The names are better suited for use in automation applications.
• Naming is based on visible appearance like "Square" and "Rounded".
• By prefixing the name with a standard institute and use a trailing general used profile designation, a global unique designation is created that is better understood.

Naming

The name is one or a combination of characters.

• The first character is the main shape. Examples: "T-profile" and "Rectangular"
• Subsequent characters are only designated if not corresponding to the expected default shape and or add extra shape complexity. This works like a sieve. The longer the code, the more complexity.

First character, main shape

The first character determines the basic shape.

basic_profiles.svg

The first row contains abbreviations:

The second row is more obvious, the letter represents the shape. O stands for omega.