Off site manufacture

Far more accurate workmanship is achieved with steel being manufactured and fabricated off-site. Waste is minimised and a high quality, defect free product achieved.

Any waste material arising is 100 per cent recycled and there is rarely any waste on site due to the high quality of product achieved. In the modern fabrication workshop, where state of the art numerically controlled machinery is fully integrated with CAD software, steel can be easily standardised, tested and certified. Corrosion and fire protection coatings can be applied at the fabrication stage, reducing the overall site construction programme.

Local communities benefit from offsite manufacture as there is much less traffic to sites and far smaller on-site workforces adding to local traffic congestion. Other benefits for local people are that steel construction is dry and dust free and relatively quiet. At the end of its working life a steel building is easily taken down without the noise and dust associated with demolishing masonry or concrete structures, and the steel is all recycled.

Off-site manufactured steel leads to more predictable construction programmes. Surveys have shown that using steel as the framing solution for a commercial building reduces the construction programme by up to 15 per cent. Site managers benefit from just-in-time delivery, being able to hold fabricated steelwork at depots or at the steelwork contractors’ workshop until it is needed, saving space and reducing the possibility of damage from on-site storage.

Once delivered to site, pre-engineered steelwork sections are speedily and safely erected. Steelwork is inherently safer, requiring fewer people to install who are generally well trained. The site activities are predictable and well practised.