What to Know About Structural Steel Fabrication
Steel that comes from the mill is a raw material that must be prepared for use in projects. This preparation could include sawing, bending, and assembly to create products that are ready to be used. Preparing steel for use in final projects is known as fabrication, and it’s an important part of the building process.
Why Fabricating?
Structural steel fabrication can help you save a lot of time and money. Instead of needing to create the products you need for your projects, you can instead have them fabricated into predefined shapes and sizes ready to use in buildings, industrial equipment, ships, and various other final products.
By working with steel fabricators, you can collect the materials you need and begin work immediately rather than tackling the cutting, bending, and assembly yourself.
Fabrication Stages
Because the raw materials that come from the mill need to be fabricated, there are some steps that are generally followed. First, there’s cutting, which is often done by shearing or sawing. By cutting, steel can be transformed to manageable sizes. They may also be formed into specific shapes at this time, which can be used with ease when assembling the components of your project later.
Next is bending, which can create various shapes for use in a wide variety of ways. Machinery is needed to bend the steel, though hammering may also be used in some cases. Once the steel has been bent as needed, it’s time for the last step.
Different pieces of steel can be assembled into one new product. Assembly can occur with adhesives or with rivets. This is the final step before the new product is then delivered for use in buildings, ships, infrastructure, and many other projects.
Applications
Many people encounter steel several times each day and never stop to think about the various steps needed to create the structural steel they’ve seen. For instance, a ship’s passenger may marvel at the size of the structure and assume the ship builder fabricated the steel used rather than buying the components from fabricators. The same goes for someone who uses a steel handrail while climbing stairs. Most people simply don’t stop to consider the various phases each material may go through before it is used in its final form.
Structural steel fabrication is used for manufacturing, to create platforms, ladders, stairs, and more. In construction, steel fabrication is used for girders, beams, plates, and angle. The energy sector needs steel fabrication for pipelines, platforms, turbines, and towers. Miners use structural steel fabrication for fittings, pipes, beams, rails, and rods. In fact, every piece of steel you see has been specially fabricated for that particular use.
At Texas Iron & Metal, we specialize in supplying surplus steel. In many cases, that steel has already been fabricated for specific uses. In others, we have the materials from a change order or canceled order that may need to be further fabricated for your specific project. We can provide some fabrication solutions such as shearing, cutting, and sawing right here on site, so be sure to ask. We’ll help you make sure you leave with the exact materials you need for your project.