Adept NFS
Want to speed up the steel detailing process? We Adept Engineering Solutions – a steel detailing company have some suggestions:
Specify a maximum UDL for short-span beams.
When the beam end reactions are not shown in the drawing, we typically have to design them with 50% UDL capacity. But in short-span beams, this 50% UDL leads to heavier connection that can possibly fail. Hence, we suggest providing the exact end reaction for short-span beams or a maximum UDL percentage instead of defaulting to 50% in order to speed up the process and reduce RFIs.
Go with equal depths
In some cases we encounter, the supporting girder depth is lower than the supported beam depth, which leads to more copes and possibly a new proposed connection. We suggest either using the same depth for both the supported beam and the supporting girder or providing coping connection details. This can eliminate unnecessary copes and reduce connection design and fabrication time.
Go bigger to match with plate girder profiles
When connecting the W8 or W10 beams with plate girders that have thicker flanges, we require more cope in the supported beam. But sometimes, the cope dimensions are more than the supported beam’s T/2 value. In such situations, we suggest increasing the supported beam profile to higher than a W10, which will speed up the detailing process and avoid RFIs.
Provide an actual brace
Rather than defaulting to 50% tensile or compression capacity for a brace, provide the actual load for the brace. It drastically reduces the number of different brace connections and also speeds up the detailing process.
Add stiffener notes
We suggest providing stiffener notes, in addition to specification notes, listing the locations where stiffeners should be provided. This helps speed up the decision-making process when it comes to detailing.
Stay typical when you can
When we’re provided multiple atypical connections, we have to detail and fabricate them individually, which requires more labor and time. We suggest providing typical connections whenever possible.
Provide requirements for slotted holes
In some projects, slotted holes is inevitable. We suggest providing the slot requirements at all necessary locations—which will speed up the detailing process.
Provide complete details for renovations/additions.
When it comes to renovating or adding to an existing steel building, it’s helpful to have the complete details of the existing building, if at all possible, so that we can coordinate the new and existing framing and avoid having to detail beams that may end up being too short or too long—which can add months to a detailing project.
For more information, visit www.adept-engineering.com.
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