Advancements in technology have improved
the versatility of steel construction
By Ric Anderson, P.E., S.E., Nucor Skyline
It is amazing to think about how many manufactured products
there are available to us today. Other than the actual
function, these products must meet some criteria, quality
and durability within their manufacturing processes so that when
we see them on the shelves, we are enticed to buy them.
Some of the processes associated with manufacturing are quality
assurance and quality control. While these terms are often used
interchangeably to refer to ways of ensuring the quality of a service
or product, they actually refer to different parts of the manufacturing
process. Quality assurance (QA) is a way of preventing mistakes
and defects in manufactured products via administrative and procedural
activities, so that requirements and goals for a product are
fulfilled. QA is the systematic comparison with a standard, monitoring
of processes and an associated feedback loop that seeks
error prevention. Quality control (QC) is the process by which
the quality of all factors involved in production are reviewed. This
includes, but is not limited to, inspection for product defects such
as cracks, blemishes and air bubbles. QC is focused on the output
function of the manufacturing process.
While QA/QC is a valuable process in the manufacturing of any
product, one arena where it is vital is in the steel industry. As the
steel making process progressed from the Bessemer furnace to the
basic oxygen furnace and now to the electric arc furnace, the quality
of the finished product has improved dramatically, in part due
to the QA/QC process that has evolved with better technologies.
With the ability for steel manufacturers to make higher quality,
better performing steels, the many industries that use steel have
taken advantage of these improvements allowing them to have
more flexibility in the production of their finished products. This is
even more apparent in the deep foundation industry, where if you
can dream of a structure, steel can be used to support it.
Steel was first used as a pile in the late 1800s and it remains the
material of choice today due to the variety of products made from
steel. Nucor-Yamato Steel Company (NYS) was formed in 1988 as
a joint venture between Nucor and Yamato Kogyo with the goal of
operating a steel mini-mill to manufacture wide flange beams in
Blytheville, Ark. What started as one manufacturing facility has
grown into approximately 25, as Nucor has grown its business and
built up capabilities with partnerships and acquisitions. Today,
Nucor has more than 300 operating facilities, all with different QA/
QC policies and procedures to keep high standards of excellence.
Although there are many different products made from steel,
we will focus on three types of steel products in this article: H-piles,
sheet piles and pipe piles.
H-piles are bearing piles used in deep foundation systems
where the soils may not have the strength to support a structure
or when a structure cannot be supported by a shallow foundation.
H-piles are produced using the same process of manufacturing as
wide flange beams. The primary differences between H-piles and
wide flange beams are that H-piles have a uniform thickness for
both the web and flange and are as wide as they are deep. This uniformity
has several advantages when used as a foundation system,
such as having a larger surface area for skin friction or allowing the
engineer to distribute forces more evenly into the bearing strata.
Steel texture: andreykuzmin/123RF
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