Developments in steel construction in the United Kingdom: Fid-Bau Portal

Developments in steel construction in the United Kingdom

Todd, A.J.

In the last decade increased the steel construction its share of the multi-storey building frame market up to more than 50 %. A major component of this success is the drastical reduction of production costs of a current level of 56 % compared with 1981. The technological development of the steel grades is a further argument for steel frame building, since longer span and higher buildings are possible without extra costs for the fabrication of the heavier sections. The strong position of the steel producers in this special market is also a result of intensive research and development of new production methods and product systems for the building industry. One of this new product systems is Slimflor/Slimdek of British Steel, which allows a construction with fewer elements, higher construction speed, inherent fire resistance and spanning wides up to 9 m. The central part of the Slimflor-system is the asymmetric beam, a special rolling product. Wescol, a structural steelwork fabricator has developed a new castellation process which results in circular openings as opposed to the pseudo hexagonal openings in castelled beams. Different diameters and spacing of cells are possible without change in the fabrication process and at no extra costs. Therefore, the design of a customised beam is possible.