News in Brief: January 2009

Billington Structures has won the prize for business growth at the Barnsley Business Awards 2008. The award, sponsored by the Barnsley Chronicle recog- nised Billington’s achievement of significant and sustained growth over the past three years.

BCSA has formed the Fabrication and Welding Users group and its first meeting was held at the BCSA’s Yorkshire office on 25 November. The aim of the group is to provide BCSA mem- bers with a forum to discuss and address the complete range of practical and technical issues affecting day to day operations. The first meeting discussed the forthcoming introduction of CE Marking and the associated standards BS EN 1090-1 and BS EN 1090-2, the new welding standards and developments in material processing machinery and software.

The new European Standard for the fabrication and erection of structural steelwork, BS EN 1090-2, was expected to be pub- lished by the BSI as NSC went to press at the end of December. BS EN 1090-2 will eventually re- place British Standards such as BS 5950-2, BS 5400-6 and parts of BS 8110.

The doubts associated with application of BS 6399-2 to large- span single storey buildings together with the recent issues association with the forthcom- ing wind Eurocode, EC1: Part 1.4 have prompted the BCSA to commission the Building Re- search Establishment (BRE) to monitor the wind load on a typi- cal hangar. The purpose of the work is to collect data with a view to assessing the validity of the wind load models in BS 6399- 2 and EC1: Part 1.4 and whether or not the recommendation ‘to ignore local wind pressures in the design of the steel frame’ should be reinstated in BS 5950- 1. Measurements are to to made during a four month period this winter.