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Special Steel in Civil Engineering Works
06 June 2017

CIVIL ENGINEERING: the importance of special steel with high yield strength and wear resistance steel.

The machines installed and used by VENTURI ACCIAI and its stock of raw materials would be suitable to support the large market of Civil Engineering Works, however only a small part of this market is active in Italy, unlike in the rest of Europe and other countries.

Civil Engineering Works do not only concern motorway flyovers or houses built by innovative architects, but they also concern environmental requalification, restoration of hydrogeological risk areas, large land consolidation works, land reclamation and safety and much more.

Special Steel in Civil Engineering Works

The latest generation SPECIAL STEELS with both HIGH YIELD STRENGTH and WEAR RESISTANCE can be used not only for their high quality mechanical features but also simply to develop different types of lightweight structures. These types of steel are versatile: they can be cold formed, welded using common systems and they have a high safety coefficient. Compared to traditional steels -which in many situations could even be considered obsolete, lightweight structures can make transport and subsequent installations easier, even in hardly accessible areas, to the extent that the initial cost of the material can be recovered.

SPECIAL STEELS are also suitable for the construction of the skeletons of residential buildings; in fact they are used in northern Europe (restricting the area to Europe). The welded beams can be shaped to create the most suitable profiles to withstand the loads, and in this case they also offer designers the advantage of being very versatile. A classic example is the SKYLINE of north American cities, where they have been using steel to build large buildings for decades; the use of steel still today allows the construction of large living surfaces that develop upwards (high rise buildings) occupying as little land as possible.

The famous TWIN TOWERS were square in plan, with the side length measuring only 63.4 metres and they were over 410 metres high (415 and 417 respectively) and offered a walkable surface of 800,000 square meters. All this was possible thanks to the designer (Japanese) who conceived, already back in 1963, the use of large articulated beams, built in total safety despite the constant flow of wind from the ocean.

High performance steels have the mechanical properties to withstand great stress.

If Mr. EIFFEL had designed the famous TOWER using STRENX 1100, in theory he could have built it three times higher or three times lighter and safer (calculation actually carried out by SSAB for the presentation of the former WELDOX 1100 E at the INTERMAT exhibition in Paris 20 years ago).

Special Steel in Civil Engineering Works

The same construction principles can be applied not only for the construction of buildings, but also in other industrial construction sectors:

  • warehouses and hangars;
  • containment tanks;
  • pylons, towers and repeaters, etc.;
  • bridges and flyovers and infrastructures in general.

Technical specifications however, i.e. bureaucracy, limit the “scientific” assessment of the characteristics of steel.

In particular, bridges can be designed exploiting the mechanical characteristics offered by the wide range of steels produced, by the different formats and thicknesses available, to produce beams and supports that express great inventive ideas.

VENTURI ACCIAI, does everything it can, where possible, to provide all the necessary information on the most suitable types of steel to use for different constructions. Venturi Acciai is supported by the best European steel making companies that produce these materials and are available to follow innovative projects, suggesting the most suitable steel for each construction.

VENTURI ACCIAI is equipped to cut flat arches with laser or plasma technology, to bend corner elements and prepare the edges for assembly, using the grades of steel resulting from the designers’ calculations; it can also prepare a construction kit for the subsequent welding operations.

If you would like more information about supplying special steel with high yield strength and wear resistance steel contact us today, CLICK HERE.