Reading a SAIL SeQR bundle tag

IS 1786 puts a tag on every bundle, and it must carry three things: the cast or lot number, the grade, and the size. On a SeQR tag, the cast or lot number names the batch of liquid steel the bars were rolled from, and the same number should appear again on the certificate; it is the thread that ties the steel in your hand to the test results on the paper. The grade line should read Fe 500D or Fe 550D, because those are the only two grades SAIL publishes for SeQR. The size should be 8, 10, 12, 16, 20 or 25 mm, the six diameters on SeQR's own table.

So the tag is checked against two things at once: against your order, and against SeQR's short list. A tag showing a grade or size that SeQR's table does not carry is worth a phone call before anything else happens to that bundle.

Pull one rod clear and look along it between the ribs. The brand and the grade are pressed into the bar while it is rolled, and on this line they read SAIL SeQR with the grade beside it, 550D on the Fe 550D bar; SAIL's own brochure photographs show exactly that lettering raised along the rod. Because the letters are formed in hot steel, they repeat down the whole length and cannot be peeled off or retied the way a tag can.

On a bar made under a BIS licence, a six digit identification number is marked along the rod as well, repeating at intervals of not more than 3 metres. Two of its digits name the BIS branch office behind the licence and four are the tail of the licence number itself. Read it out to us on the phone and we tell you what it names.

From 8 mm up, the Steel and Steel Products (Quality Control) Order, 2024, S.O. 3716(E), requires sariya to carry the ISI Standard Mark under a BIS licence. Since the thinnest SeQR is 8 mm, that requirement reaches every bundle of this brand: there is no SeQR diameter on which a missing mark can be shrugged off. The licence itself has a number, written CM/L followed by digits, and it is printed on the certificate beside the mark.

That CM/L number is checkable from a phone in the yard. The BIS Care app, free on Android, has a Verify Licence Details screen: type the number in and BIS's own record for that licence comes back. It is a one minute check that does not depend on anyone's word, ours included.

Every SeQR consignment travels with a test certificate from the mill, and the BIS product manual for IS 1786 fixes what it must show: the Standard Mark, the cast or lot number, the grade, the size, and the results of the tests, with the CM/L licence number printed alongside. Set it against the tag and the bar. When all three name the same cast, grade and size, the load has answered every question worth asking at the vehicle. What that certificate is worth on a tendered job, and when a department will demand it, is covered in what an MTC is.

A weighing scale closes the loop. SAIL prints a weight per metre against every SeQR size, 0.888 kg at 12 mm for one, and the sariya weight chart carries the full table with the tolerance the standard allows either side.

Photograph the tag and the lettering on the bar and send both on WhatsApp, or read them out on the call: the cast number, the grade, the size, and the CM/L number off the paper. We match them against the consignment that came into the godown and tell you what you are holding. The habit costs half a minute per load and settles arguments that otherwise start weeks later, when the sariya is already inside a column.

The same three reads, in less specific form, work on every brand on the rack, and the rest of our buying guides sit beside this one.