Steel fabrication is a process of molding the raw steel in the required structure which in turn can be used to support various construction sites. Steel fabricators are specialised people who can bend, mold, cut, weld and reshape the steel.
Basically, steel is a durable raw material and they come in metal sheets. Steel fabricators mainly reshape these sheets and design the product according to your requirement.
How would you hire the steel fabricators?
Fabricators often follow the below process to create structural beam or component or equipment. All you need to check their work nature, customer feedback and experience before hiring.
Ideation of the structure
The component to be designed can be a standard pre-designed component or a new component for specific requirements. When you partner with a fabricator who provides a custom steel solution, you need to go through their ideation process.
These steel fabricators are often specialised to create beautiful, handcrafted rails or caged ladders etc. The different fabricator can do different things and you need to know their specialisation before hiring.
Some of them can design heavy furniture and few of them can only design the machinery and automobile parts. So always ask their specialisation before hiring.
Creating the blueprint
After an idea is final then we need to map it on a piece of paper with more structured form. There are various engineering software’s available these days which can help in creating these blue prints.
These blueprints can also design with 3D designing machines and steel fabricators are mainly developing the same design with the raw materials only.
Create shop drawings
After blueprint is created, steel fabricators convert these blue prints into shop drawings. The shop drawings will adhere to the logistics of your project, which may include deadlines and budget.
In this stage, you need to take the written agreement with the steel fabricators and they must include their deadline, work descriptions and prices in the agreement. Always read the norms of the agreement before signing.
Steel fabrication process for the construction site
Cut and drill steel beams
Using tools like saws, lasers, and punches, the steel fabricator will then cut and drill steel beams as per the project blueprint.
Piece etching
Then the steel fabricator will etch each piece with the unique part number and plate location. This helps the faster and efficient assembly of various parts on the site, thus eliminating the costly mix-ups and project delays.
Assembly
Further, the specific components are assembled with help of a welding machine. This is often done after the vendor has completed cutting and forming the components. After assembly, the steel fabricator will check the quality of fabrication in terms, it matches the order specification.
Shipping of the components
Once the assembly is complete, the steel fabricator will again disassemble the project and will prepare them to be shipped to the site where they are required.
The packing is often done in a way to make project erection easy on the site. Before packaging, the steel fabricator will complete the demand for any special paint, or powder coat or sandblasting as requested by the customer.
Erecting the project on site
Once the project arrives on site, the construction team will erect the final project. The vendor will make the assembly easy and will ensure that the components are fit together with the minimum requirement of labors.
There is a high demand of quality steel fabricators in the market as construction related projects are ever increasing. The good quality steel fabricators will have specialised knowledge in fabrication, design, engineering and erection of the steel structure. They will always meet the client’s expectations and would provide excellent innovative solutions.