|
|||||
|
Some years ago, the Steel Quiz of Modern Steel Construction asked “Which of the following camber ordinates for a 30ft W16x26 beam are not recommended? a. ¼ in., b. ½ in., c. 1-1/2 in, d. 2 in, e. 5 in.” The editors answered that “a, b, and e. Usually cambers of ¾ in. or less are avoided . . . → Read More: Cambering Steel Sections: Cambering Machines and Section Benders.   At the North American Steel Construction Conference held on May 11 to May 14, 2011, we learned from Bill McEleny, Director of the National Steel Bridge Alliance, that the AASHTO construction specification has recently been revised to allow cold cambering of rolled beams. Article 11.4.12.2.6 has been revised to read as follows – “Camber for rolled beams . . . → Read More: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Revises Beam Bending Standards. A growing market for those of us in steel? After the earthquake, tsunami and subsequent damage to the nuclear power plants in Japan, Yucca Mountain is in the news again. Planned as a repository for spent fuel rods from nuclear power plants in the U.S., after 38 billion dollars were spent on construction, in February of 2011 . . . → Read More: Steel Tunnel Supports and Yucca Mountain For Metal Manufacturing and Structural Steel Construction One cynic described a barometer as “an ingenious instrument which indicates what kind of weather we are having.” I suspect that most of us don’t feel we need an economic barometer to indicate what we are experiencing in today’s economic climate. But perhaps there are useful measures of how metal manufacturing . . . → Read More: Barometers Curved steel requires much the same handling and transportation needs as straight steel. However, there are a couple of specific shipping issues that are unique to curved steel. One issue that is unique to rolled structural steel is the varying space requirement. The radius, degree of the pitch (for a circular stair stringer), and . . . → Read More: What Special Handling and Transportation Requirements Should Be Associated With Curved Steel?
Steel section bending has probably been done one way or another since steel members were first produced. Today’s modern, section bending involves sophisticated hydraulic rolls to create accurate, attractive and structurally sound curved steel. But what about that material that is fed into the bending machines? How were the standards we have today for steel sections . . . → Read More: Steel Section Bending – Some History on the Development of Steel Standards Lean manufacturing has been successfully employed by OEMs to reduce costs, improve productivity and reduce response time. But in many cases, these OEMs are producing the same parts, often on dedicated machines. A steel bending job shop, however, is often producing small lots or parts for a non-repeating project—perhaps a prototype or component parts for a . . . → Read More: Can lean manufacturing help in a steel bending job shop? (Can a woodchuck chuck wood?) While attending various trade shows either for OEM products like storage tanks, antennas, agricultural and construction equipment, etc., I regularly see where the use of a curved steel section—produced by beam bending, bar bending, angle bending, channel bending or any other section bending—could have reduced the cost of the equipment. For example, I . . . → Read More: Can a curved steel section reduce the cost of OEM products? Whenever I talk to architects and engineers about bending beams, bending pipes, or any other steel section bending, three questions usually come up: Is it structurally sound? Is it structurally sound? Writing specifically about steel beam bending, Reidar Bjorhovde addressed this question in the Engineering Journal/Fourth . . . → Read More: Curved Steel in Construction? No worries! Recently, I gave the presentation at the Kansas City Regional Steel Fabricators Association biannual meeting. 110 steel fabricators, engineers, architects, detailers, and others attended the breakfast. I talked about the benefits of involving a specialty subcontractor like Chicago Metal Rolled Products in the design process when curved steel elements are included like rolled HSS and W beams. During . . . → Read More: Galvanizing Curved Steel |
|||||
|
Copyright © 2013 Chicago Metal Rolled Products Blog - All Rights Reserved |
|||||
