AASHTO R 38 – Standard Practice for Quality Assurance of Standard Manufactured Materials

This standard practice contains minimum criteria and guidelines for establishing and implementing quality assurance (QA) procedures for standard manufactured materials used in highway construction. The purpose of this document is to establish minimum quality control (QC) requirements for manufacturers and to provide guidelines for acceptance of standard manufactured materials by transportation agencies.

Standard Manufactured Materials – Materials used in transportation construction are broadly categorized according to their source and corresponding methods of production. The three principal materials categories are as follows:

Project-produced materials,
Fabricated structural materials, and
Standard manufactured materials.

Standard manufactured materials are standard items that are produced routinely (i.e., not for a specific project) by a manufacturer. They are generally characterized by one or more of the following conditions:

The materials are normally mass-produced under highly controlled and largely automated manufacturing conditions.
The material properties are stable and have no potential for alteration under proper transportation from the manufacturer to the project site.
The materials arrive at the project site in a solid, finished state and require only installation.