Hi Akanksha,
I apologize if this has already been answered. When you purchase a dual certification material, in this case 316L/316, it means that all of the important aspects of the material grades are satisfied. When you inquired about 316L, it customarily means that the material has low C and meets all of the other chemical requirements, and also has a minimum yield and tensile exceeding that of 316L. 316L as I recall has a slightly lower tensile strength requirement than 316. But there is generally not a maximum on the yield and tensile.
If a supplier can provide a product that meets the low C of the L grade, but also meets the tensile strength requirements of 316, then it can be sold to also meet the property requirements of 316. Modern steel making processes routinely accomplish this. So what you are purchasing is a 316L with slightly enhanced strength such that it always exceeds the minimums of 316. As one only purchases 316L when one needs the low C for some aspect of corrosion resistance such as sensitization protection, the dual grade material should meet all of your needs and you can ignore that it also meets 316. The strength requirements of 316 and 316L were set a long time ago and practices have improved. Another example of historical change is that 316 was developed to meet certain alloy content ranges, and it was unlikely that all alloys would be at the low end of specification in a single heat. Corrosion resistance tests were therefore done on "average" heats. When manufacturing advances allowed tight control of alloy content such that heats could be produced with lower and therefore less expensive alloy content, it was found that sometimes the lean heats no longer provided adequate corrosion resistance for some applications. Therefore some consumers found that they needed to purchase 317 with higher Mo, or reached agreements with suppliers to provide alloy content that was at least not low-side on certain elements, to guarantee a certain corrosion resistance.
For specific applications such as fabricating an ASME pressure vessel or piping, or an airplane, material is purchased not as "316L" but according to a somewhat more detailed specification such as an ASTM/ASME/ANSI/AMS. These specifications will have additional requirements or conditions that may restrict certain manufacturing process factors, product forms (forging vs. bar vs. sheet vs. wire, etc.), heat treatments, cleaning, specific physical or mechanical properties, inclusion count, etc. Additional specifications that the material meets may be detailed in the fine print at your supplier. Depending on the purpose you plan for the material you may want to look into other, more detailed specifications. If you are buying sheet to 316L and then the sheet is subjected to heat such as welding, it will have the increased sensitization resistance expected of an L grade but will lose the tensile enhancement of cold-rolled sheet in the areas adjacent to the weld, so this is a design factor to keep in mind. I hope that these comments are of value.
Paul Tibbals