Material fatigue is defined as small-scale damaged, mostly imperceivable to the naked eye until it is too late, that is brought about in the material by constant or repetitive stress caused by the weight of the material itself, the elements it needs to support, or by seismic or atmospheric conditions (air temperature, wind, and humidity for metal are outlined as the most important ones). Material fatigue has long been the bane of all metal...

3D printing seems to have become somewhat of a scientific fad in the last few years as people could hear about many 3D printed objects; from transplant-ready hearts for people with severe heat conditions to toy guns for people with maybe just too much time and resources on their hands. The latest piece of news from the world of 3D printing could be very interesting in the context of the structural steel industry as, by late 2018, Amsterdam’s...

The most sought-after solution for reducing construction costs, regardless of the material in use, is prefabrication. It removes a lot of potential and actual nuisances from the construction process like increased transportation costs, susceptibility to the elements and, possibly the key factor, time. Prefabrication is always the preferred method when raising structural steel warehouses, commercial or industrial buildings of anytime, but it has...

Steel has been long established as the main structural material for tall structures, warehouses and other types of industrial and commercial buildings. It has, however, rarely been used as the main structural material in smaller residential buildings, especially not in ordinary homes. Steel has been used to reinforce concrete walls; in those types of homes, concrete walls would be woven through by steel bars some 8 to 12mm thick. The increased...

The research team at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have come up with a new type of coating material that could drastically improve steel performance in case of fire and also reduce the costs as well as the time required to apply protection in the first place. The major advantage of the new coating material, called FiroShield, lies in the fact that it is much easier to apply as its application will not steel surfaces to be...