Find a part's weight, its volume, or the density of a sample.
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Density links mass and volume: ρ = m ÷ V. Pick a material or enter your own density, and work out the mass of a part from its size, or the volume from its weight. Or weigh a sample to find its density. Handbook values are nominal, so check the grade if the weight matters.
Choose what you want to find: mass, volume, density, or the weight of a plate or bar.
Pick a material. The preset fills the density box, and you can change the value.
Enter the size or mass.
Press Calculate to get the result in metric and US units.
By O.E. — Partner, chairman of the board and CEO of a metal products manufacturer for 21 years; the company exports to 45 countries.
Drafted with AI assistance; calculations checked against primary sources and tested with the site's own code. About FlowUtil
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A steel plate 2 m by 1 m by 10 mm has a volume of 2 × 1 × 0.01 = 0.02 m³.
In US units, steel weighs about 490 lb/ft³, or 0.284 lb/in³. A 500 cm³ block weighs 3.93 kg in steel. For standard shapes, the steel bar weight calculator and the steel plate chart save the step.
For a lift, use the weight on the delivery note or weigh the load. A density estimate is not a lifting plan.
Alloys in one family can differ by more than you expect.
| Material | Density, kg/m³ | lb/ft³ | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Structural steel | 7,850 | 490 | |
| Stainless 304 | 7,930–8,000 | 495–499 | Sources vary |
| Aluminium 6061 | 2,700 | 169 | |
| Aluminium 7075 | 2,810 | 175 | 4% heavier than 6061 |
| Titanium Ti-6Al-4V | 4,430 | 277 | Pure titanium is about 4,500 |
| Normal concrete | 2,400 | 150 | Add about 100 for reinforcement |
| Natural rubber | 930–950 | 58–59 | Fillers raise it |
The material density table has more, and the density converter changes the units. Eurocode 1 (EN 1991-1-1) uses 24 kN/m³ for plain concrete and 25 kN/m³ with normal reinforcement, adding another 1 kN/m³ while it is wet. That is why a design figure is often higher than a test on dry concrete.
A part with no simple shape can be measured in water, using Archimedes' principle. Weigh it in air, then hanging fully under water. The loss in weight equals the weight of water pushed aside.
A sample reads 120.0 g in air and 104.7 g in water:
Water is 998 kg/m³ at 20 °C, so the correction is small. Remove air bubbles, as they cause a low reading. Hollow parts cannot be measured this way.
It separates families well. A reading near 2.7 points to aluminium, 4.4 to titanium, 7.8 to steel and 8.9 to copper alloys. It cannot separate grades, since 304 and 316 stainless, or 1018 and 4140 steel, sit almost on top of each other. For that you need a chemical test.
Weight-for-weight comparisons often need strength as well, so look at the engineering materials properties table.
Specific gravity is density divided by the density of water, so 7,850 kg/m³ is SG 7.85. In g/cm³, the number is the same.
An item floats if its SG is below 1. Polyethylene at 950 kg/m³ floats. PVC at 1,380 and nylon at 1,150 sink, even though both are plastics. The guide to specific gravity has more on this.
Heat lowers density slightly. Steel expands by about 12 millionths per °C in each direction, so at 200 °C it is about 0.65% less dense than at 20 °C.
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