How Steel Detailing Drawings Aid Structural Steel Fabricators

13 December 2019

Since the steel framework inside a structure functions as a support backbone, this layer of a project’s construction drawings is perceived as an erection’s true building blocks. This is the core, the fundamental substance of the project. True, builders add floors and walls and ceilings to create occupant-habitable spaces, but they’re not what determine a structure’s load-bearing characteristics. At the end of the day, steel detailing drawings simply respect and facilitate this central axiom.

Reviewing Structural Steel Fabricator Services

Scalability is key, with all of the shop floor-sized structural beams receiving attention from equally massive machine stations. At every juncture, there are straightening and bending, twisting and shearing operations to execute, and every single step must be discharged with great accuracy.

Steel Detailing Drawings Eliminate Assembly Ambiguities

Large though these structural steel elements obviously are, they still need to be formed by machines that use nth degree cutting and forming accuracy. No matter the bend radii, no matter the amount of offsets or beam bends, the steel framework always aligns. And remember, this is a three-dimensional service. Those grid sections and steel cells align in all three axes. Consequently, if assembly notches and fastener holes are applied to the many structural steel parts, every single one of them will line up, again, thanks to the services of a highly detailed set of steel detailing plans.

Utilized as a Services Forking Mechanism

There are typically two branches splitting off from the main plans. The architects and engineers have done their work, so the steel has formed into a grid. Steel detailing drawings basically function as branch engendering mechanisms. On one branch, the shop drawings mark out beam lengths and bend positions. Weldments are issued to prefabricated steel sections, material grades are selected so that an alloy provides a measure of hardness and malleability. The steel also has to be workable and weldable. On the other branch, the erection drawings tell the crane operators and site contractors how to raise the structure. The single common factor shared between the two branches is the level of accuracy required to fabricate the discrete elements that will combine to form a zero-sum, entirely balanced whole.

The whole framework is built as a 3D grid. Structural steel fabricators can easily combine beams and trusses until they’re arranged as a crude cage or single large building block. That being said, few buildings assemble as squat squares. Modern structures are loaded with refined edges and geometrically exacting profiles. To make such intricate structural steel projects a reality, the plans must first be processed through the offices of a professional steel detailing drawer, a service that’ll ensure steelwork accuracy and pass those accurate outlines onto the shop and erection site.