You may have heard the terms minimum yield (commonly referred to as “min yield”) and reported yield strength. These terms are not synonymous. Therefore, it is important to understand the difference between a specification’s minimum yields strength and the yield strength reported on the mill test report.

What is the Minimum Yield of a pipe specification?

This is the yield strength required by the specification the material is manufactured to.
According to the specification, no area on the material should test out below this yield strength. For example;
Specification Required Yield
A-106 grade B 35,000 psi
A-106 Grade C 40,000 psi
API X-52 52,000 psi

What is a Reported Yield of pipe?

This is the yield strength that has resulted from the yield test conducted by the manufacturer in order to verify that it is in conformance with the specification and is reported on the “Mill Test Report”. In most cases the yield will greatly exceed the “minimum” strength required by the specification.
This reported yield does not mean that all the material or all samples will retest to the “reported” results.
The manufacture only warrants that the yield strength will meet or exceed the requirements of specification the material was manufactured to.

Please refer to the pipe specification manual to reference the unique specification information.