IN THE FIELD By Glen Pisani
Boosting Efficiency and Safety The case for shop-attached bent plate in steel erection
This is the final result of the bent plate after welding it to the beam. In the foreground is a temporary bolt used to connect the plate to the beam in the shop.
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ne example of how fabricator-erector relationships directly impact work in the field manifests itself in the issue of shop-attached (or not) bent plate. On job sites across the country, risk increases, productivity is reduced, and costs go up for erectors when bent plate arrives loose. Shop-attached bent plate improves efficiency and speed by reducing the amount of material handling ironworkers must do in the field, making the steel erection process faster. In contrast, setting plate—which generally extends well past the centerline of the steel supporting it—requires temporary outriggers to support the bent plate Glen Pisani has more than 30 years of experience in structural steel construction—20 as an owner and 14 as Steel Division Manager for MAS Building & Bridge, Inc., Norfolk, Massachusetts. He is an officer on SEAA's board of directors, where he has served since 2017.
while adjusting it. This creates unnecessary extra steps, reducing productivity, and increasing costs. Shop-attached plate improves quality because shop welding and bolting are done in a controlled environment. Often there is better fit-up and alignment with structural pieces. The safety benefits are huge. Reducing field welding and bolting means less work is done at heights. Handling a 200-pound (or more) piece of steel while walking iron and setting it while hanging over the building’s perimeter isn’t safe or fun. Having bent plate shop-attached enables it to be more safely and efficiently lifted into place by a crane, reducing the opportunities for dropping plate to lower levels. It also reduces exposure to pinching and crushing injuries and musculoskeletal injuries. This all adds up to cost savings and more efficient construction timelines.
22 | THE STEEL ERECTORS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
Propose Solutions The practice of providing shop-attached bent plate is not universal. It is often up to the fabricator to decide whether to provide materials this way. Key reasons may be that attached bent plate makes it more difficult to stack steel on a trailer for transport to the jobsite. But I would argue that the use of extra dunnage could easily resolve that issue. Another reason might be related to the plumb tolerances on the project. Welded bent plate is always preferred but if tolerances are stringent and bent plates need to be able to be adjusted in the field, a simple bolted slotted connection is a good compromise. Erectors should be qualifying this on their estimates and communicating with the fabricators that this is how they are estimating the project. SEAA’s relationships with other industry