Tata Steel has partnered with the Steel Construction Institute (SCI) to produce a brand new revised version of their ‘Blue Book’ software tool for use in the design of structures using hollow sections. Completely free and easy-to-use, the Blue Book is available now via: www.tatasteelbluebook.com
The Blue Book is an essential guide for the design of tubular steelwork – increasingly in use by bridge and building designers – covering Tata Steel’s entire structural hollow sections range and incorporating comprehensive section property data for key products Celsius® and Hybox®.
The new Blue Book enables the rapid selection of steel members in compression and bending, and data tables are also provided for combined bending and compression, web resistance and shear resistance.
“The Blue Book has been available for nearly 20 years and this updated version is much more user-friendly than previous versions,” says Steve Whitfield, Tata Steel’s Structural Customer Technical Services Manager.
Harthill Footbridge: structural hollow sections spanning the M8.
“In this digital era, we wanted to create a valuable and flexible design tool that works across various interfaces and platforms. I feel we have achieved this with this latest version; the design tables have been fully updated and are now much more accessible. Its new format allows designers to navigate on selected pages between various sizes, helping them find the correct member from our updated range of readily available products.”
Michael Sansom of the SCI adds: “The updated Blue Book has better tables which are more flexible and consequently easier to use. Once a user selects a member size all the relevant information is immediately highlighted on the page, allowing designers to see the information quickly and easily.”
This fully revised software supersedes all previous versions and also fits seamlessly into Tata Steel’s new construction website www.tatasteelconstruction.com providing users with a comprehensive single reference point for the entire Tata Steel portfolio within the diverse Construction & Infrastructure Sector.