Branded vs local TMT

IS 1786 clause 13.3 asks for marks introduced during rolling that give the maker's name or brand name. For material made under a BIS licence the product manual asks for more: the brand or trade mark, the grade, and a six digit identification number, permanently marked at intervals of no more than 3 metres. Two of those six digits are the BIS branch office the licence runs under and four are the tail of the licence number itself. A licensed bar names its own mill every three metres, in rolled steel, where a label cannot be swapped.

The bundle tag should show the same brand, the grade and the diameter, and the test certificate that travels with the load repeats them beside the cast or lot number, the test results and the Standard Mark. When all three agree you have branded sariya in every sense that matters. When the bill and the bar disagree, go by the bar.

Names give you less than marks do. Durgapur is a town in West Bengal, so Durgapur TMT tells you where the bar was rolled and never by whom. Solar TMT is rolled at the Alaknanda TMT group's mill, and we sell both under the Solar name. On any of them the rolled marks and the certificate settle in a minute what the name argues about all day.

5.5 mm and 6 mm are the two thin sizes we sell for rings and stirrups, and both sit outside the Order. A bundle of either that carries no ISI mark breaks no rule and tells you nothing about the steel, and a mark on a 6 mm bundle is the mill's own choice. At those two sizes the mark is silent in both directions, so ask us what the bundle actually carries and go by the brand you trust for the main bars.

5.5 mm goes one step further. The standard has never listed it, so there is no Table 1 mass for it, no tolerance band and no ISI licence that could cover it in the first place. It is a trade size supplied by agreement between the maker and the buyer. So nobody can sell you 5.5 mm on the strength of a certificate; the certificate cannot be about that size.

Clause 1.6 of IS 1786 shuts one door hard, and it has been shut since 2008 with no amendment touching it. A deformed bar produced by re-rolling finished products such as plates and rails, virgin or used or scrap, or rolled from material whose metallurgical history is not fully documented or not known, is unacceptable under the standard. That is the real branded versus local question: fresh billet at a licensed mill, or re-rolled scrap. A licence answers it. A name on its own does not.

The standard leaves the production process to the maker's discretion, so the three letters TMT describe a way of making the bar and certify nothing on their own. The extras printed across a bundle, CRS, SD, super ductile, double rib, sit outside the standard's own property table, which runs to five rows and no more. Those are the brand's claims to stand behind, and that cuts at expensive material as hard as at cheap material.

For a house slab, columns and beams we recommend SAIL SeQR and keep the deepest stock in it. It is Steel Authority of India material, sold through SAIL's own dealer network, with a published home builder range of 8 mm to 25 mm at 12.0 metre length. It comes with its certificate, the marks are clean, the lengths straight, and the weight per metre lands where the chart says. Tata Tiscon stands beside it for the buyer who asks for it by name. Alaknanda TMT, Shyam Steel, Balmukund TMT and Solar TMT are the regional names on the rack, each sold with the mark and certificate its load carries, and we tell you on the call exactly what that is.

Tender and project work sets its own answer. The specification names the approved make and says whether a test certificate has to travel with the load, and from 8 mm up that certificate is a notified requirement carrying the Standard Mark, the cast or lot number, the grade, the size and the test results. Project grade on its own is a buying category, so read the paper for the Fe number and the make it asks for, and say both when you ring.

For a house the drawing sets the diameter and the grade and says nothing about names. Not every size is in every brand on a given day, so tell us the size and the grade and we confirm which names are standing that morning. Before you take delivery, weigh a rod or a bundle and set it against the sariya weight chart: an 8 mm bar runs about 0.395 kg a metre, a 12 mm bar about 0.889 kg. A bundle well under that is thin bar, whatever the name on it. The rest of our buying guides sit alongside.