6 NSC
Nov/Dec 19
The British Constructional Steelwork
Association (BCSA) has published
a guide outlining how the steel
construction sector can meet the
requirements of UKCA Marking
in the event of the UK exiting the
European Union (EU) with no deal.
Should a no-deal exit occur,
the government will immediately
introduce UK Conformity Assessed
Marking (UKCA Marking) on exit
day, although the CE Marking of
construction products will still be
permitted for a limited time period
(currently unspecified).
The legislation that will make this
change has already been drafted and
will become UK law if the UK leaves
the EU without a deal.
After a no-deal Brexit, UKCA or CE
Marking remains mandatory for all
construction products covered by a UK
Designated Standard.
This includes fabricated structural
steelwork, and engineers, contractors
and steelwork specialists will need to
understand their obligations and how
the new UKCA Mark works.
The BCSA supplement, available
at www.steelconstruction.info/UKCA_
Marking highlights the straightforward
process that companies involved in
steel construction need to follow in
order to continue to comply with the
Construction Products Regulation,
which is the legal basis for both UKCA
and CE Marking.
The BCSA said there will be no
disruption to the regular supply
of fabricated structural steelwork
from accredited sources. It has been
mandatory for BCSA members to be
compliant with CE Marking since
the introduction of the harmonised
standard for fabricated structural
steelwork, BS EN 1090-1 on 1 July 2014.
This will continue to be the case for
UKCA Marking.
Working on behalf of main contractor
Bowmer + Kirkland, Shipley Structures
has completed the steelwork erection for
the two buildings that constitute phase two
of the Sheffield New Era development.
Known as blocks D and E, both are
nine-storey steel-framed structures,
with the former being a predominantly
commercial building including a thirdfloor
restaurant.
Block D required 570t of structural
steelwork and was the final building to be
erected. Shipley Structures Director Glynn
Shepperson said: “In order to maintain
the aesthetic requirements of the architect
and client, diagonal steel bracing had to be
omitted from the front elevation and the
building returns, due to the high volume
of glazing.
“While utilising shallow floor beams to
limit the building height, the stability of
the overall steel structure was maintained
by the strategic use of temporary bracings
until the ultimate composite design action
of the frame was achieved.”
The previously erected block E required
480t of steelwork and was completed
last December. This L-shaped building
will house retail on the ground floor and
student apartments on the upper levels.
Voortman Steel Machinery has announced
the launch of its new V807 robotic thermal
profile processor, which is a plasma and
oxy-fuel coping solution.
The V807 is said to be the result of years
of experience, research and development to
drastically reduce the machine’s footprint
and improve installation time and logistics
without any loss of processing power or
throughput efficiency.
The company said the Voortman V807
has production capacity up to three times
more than some other models in robotic
thermal profile processing.
Input for designing the V807 came
from Voortman Steel Group’s own
experience and expertise in structural
steel fabrication. Voortman said a priority
was placed on reducing the footprint of the
machine, which allows the machine to be
easily maintained and cleaned.
Voortman robotic structural steel
processing machines are said to offer a
high level of production and throughput,
especially with fully-automatic material
handling at the in- and out-feed of the
machine.
The V807 is equipped with the stateof
the-art Voortman VACAM 4.0 machine
control software. In combination with the
new 24-inch multi-touch control panel and
a simplified user interface it is said to take
the user experience to a whole new level.
Switching from plasma to oxy-fuel cutting
is said to be a quick and simple procedure.
Voortman machinery is available
in the UK and the Republic of Ireland
through Cutmaster Machines. For more
information contact:
info@cutmastermachines.com
News
BCSA publishes no-deal Brexit conformity guide
Steel completes at Sheffield’s New Era development
New robotic steel profifile cutting solution from Voortman
/Braced_frames#Vertical_bracing
/Steel_construction_products
/Fabrication
/UKCA_Marking
/UKCA_Marking
/Construction
/CE_marking
/Construction#Steel_erection
/Multi-storey_office_buildings
/UKCA_Marking
/Concept_design#Structural_options_for_stability
/Composite_construction
/Residential_and_mixed-use_buildings#Student_residences
/Fabrication#Plasma_cutting
/Fabrication
/Fabrication#Gas_or_flame_cutting
/info@cutmastermachines.com
/UKCA_
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