Methods of Fabricating Steel

Contractors do not want a capital intensive project to collapse because of inadequate structural support. Similarly, buildings should have a good finish by ensuring that the amenities included in its construction are durable and appealing. Steel helps contractors achieve this objective. Your job as a steel fabricator is to guarantee that it is applicable in varied situations from reinforcing ramps to installing stainless kitchen and bathroom sinks. Fabricating steel ensures that the construction specialists can buy steel from suppliers and use it for different needs such that the result will not be disappointing. Steel fabrication is the manipulation of the metal through bending, assembling, cutting, or elongating processes making it flexible regarding size and shape. Here are two methods steel fabricators must know. 

Using the raw material

Smelting steel involves the combination of different metals, which makes it an alloy. Varying the composition of the constituent metals enables the fabricator to change the toughness of steel. The approach used during the development of the steel metal is quite easy. First, the fabricator identifies the metals used to create the alloy and heats them. The metals melt to form thick liquids. Mixing then follows in different proportions to create a steel alloy with the desired toughness and tensile qualities. 

The Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) method

After using steel products for some time, they wear out. You have to replace them with better products, leaving the old ones as scrap alloy. Similar to other metals, a fabricator can rework steel and produce less or more tensile steel through a different mixture of materials. The EAF is dependent on steel being re-workable.

First, gather the waste steel and puts it in a furnace. Heating then follows at a high temperature such that all the waste steel in the furnace melts down. Before cooling, other materials are applied to ensure that the desired alloy results from the process. The Electric Arc Furnace method of fabricating steel is simpler that the method of raw materials. It is easy for the fabricator to produce the same steel since the initial combination of its components already exists. EAF enables recycling steel. Suppliers do not have to worry about the depleting raw materials, as the existing steel may serve different purposes following the EAF procedure.

Regardless of the method used, fabricating steel is difficult, heat oriented work. The fabrication methods are similar only that the EAF technique recycles existing steel. Different types of steel exist. They are all dependent on the two fabrication methods.


Share