Nearly all structures use structural steel beams as one of the most essential components of the construction, often serving as its backbone. This is primarily because steel offers the most excellent ratio of strength-to-weight, making it the supreme choice for construction material. Residential buildings highly benefit from greater strength and durability it provides while huge commercial buildings can be built more quickly, cheaper, and can be repaired easier. But behind the excellence and superiority of structural beams is the demanding process of manufacturing the material into the form it is required to be.
If not made correctly, all those benefits will not materialize and the risks of structural steel beams’ failure may occur. The right process of making this material starts with crushing and sorting the raw iron as the main ingredient of the material. Various refining processes are then performed to get the best iron grade that forms around 60% of the final product. The impurities from pure iron are being removed by heating the ore in a blast furnace. The molten iron is then drawn for additional processing to add other ingredients like manganese to attain desired properties expected from the steel.
After all the materials have been combined, including, of course, carbon as the main source of higher strength, the final product is then formed into desired configurations. Apart from structural steel beams, there are other shapes and forms that can be made out of the mixed raw materials, such as angle, plate, channel, and hollow steel, depending on the specific use. The various compounds are added and blended together for the purpose of improving the strength and offering less or more ductility to the beam, improving its machinability and preventing splitting and other damages.
Typically, the final step involved in making structural steel beams is welding and fabrication wherein the material is welded and fabricated to make the finished product according to its specifications. Compared to the conventional method of riveting, welded structural steel is easier to mould and navigate, lighter and more cost-effective.
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