On-site Steel Structure Manufacturing is One of the most important resources in construction, whether it be building bridges, buildings or other large structures, is structural steel. The material has a long list of benefits that are imperative to companies that build and maintain our country’s infrastructure.
For many projects, structural steel forms the backbone. That’s why it is so imperative that the complex and demanding process that is required to form the material and adapt it to whatever it will become a part of are so important. When it’s not handled correctly, there are obvious risks associated with a project’s long-term viability.
How is it made?
While the shorthand version of how structural steel is created involves heating iron up and adding certain substance to achieve specific properties, the long version is much more involved.
Raw iron is the chief ingredient, but it is rarely found pure in nature. Most often it already contains carbon, but usually in too high a concentration. Some carbon needs to be removed, but not all. Because of that, the manufacturing of steel products can be an involved process.
- Cold formed steel structure is the preferred material for curtain walls and partitions in commercial
construction due to its light weight, high strength, non-combustible nature and
ease of installation. But with advanced technological developments like panelized
systems the building community has
Once the steel has been created, it is formed into a number of different configurations, depending on how it will be used. Beam, channel, angle, plate and hollow steel tube are the most common.
How is it different?
There are a number of different configurations you can find it in, but for the most part, it is all the same stuff inside. Just like other types of steel, the main components are iron and carbon. The more carbon that is added to the alloy, the higher the strength and lower the ductility of the finished product. Other chemicals or substances can be added in the production process that can:
- Improve strength
- Deliver more or less ductility
- Improve economics of use
One of the most common additions to structural steel, after iron and carbon, is manganese. Manganese improves the machinability of steel, and also help bind steel better to resist cracking and splitting during the rolling process.
Cold-formed steel framing is made from strips of structural quality sheet steel that are fed through roll forming machines with a series of dies that progressively shape the steel into C-shaped sections, or formed into a variety of other shapes, including “U”, “Z”, and even hat-shaped sections, to meet the requirements of specific applications. Cold-formed steel framing members can be formed from a wide range of material thickness that enables them to meet the requirements of nearly all structural and non-structural applications.
- Large buildings benefit from the speed of construction.
- Industrial buildings can be built cheaper and repaired more easily
- Residential living spaces benefit from increased strength and durability
- Structural steel is advantageous for bridges due to its low weight and high strength
Fabrication
Even after it has been formed into shape, structural steel still requires fabricating and welding. A skilled fabricator or welder can take advantage of the relative malleability of structural steel to create whatever shape is needed for a specific application.
Welding is largely replacing riveting as the chosen method of fabricating structural steel, and with good reason. cold roll formed structures are:
- Lighter than similarly riveted structures
- More cost effective
- Easier to navigate and shape than their riveted counterparts
For all your structural steel needs, contact our team at Hyperion steel Structural manufacturing Company. We’ve been serving Southern Africa as one of the state’s largest metal fabricators since 1985. We’ve got the service and expertise to exceed all your metal fabricating expectations.