I hope, especially given it is holiday season, you will forgive a little self-indulgence in this issue of Connect. As we complete our third decade of existence, it is interesting to reflect on what has happened to us and our industry.
We started out almost entirely dependent on British Steel and making the most of our contacts with Imperial College to occupy from the very beginning offices on Silwood Park in Ascot. A big early focus was on the development of training material to encourage the use of steel. Our first publication was the Steelwork Design Guide to BS5950:Part 1 1985, which as a young engineer I used to help me with the design of part of Sizewell B, knowing nothing of what was to come in later years. This was the first of our ‘coloured books’ – it may be more familiar to you as the Blue Book, and has almost as useful cousins in the Green Book series. At one stage we had a Yellow Book dealing with fire, and Salmon Pink ones covering the early Eurocodes!
As years have passed the funding from our national steel producer has reduced, and we now operate in a very different market. Many more steel producers sell into the UK, there is much more information readily and freely available to designers and specifiers, and more reliance on products and information from third party suppliers. After 40 years of development the Eurocodes are well and truly with us.
But for me our position remains unique in the world. We are not a promotional body, we are clearly not a university, we are perhaps less clearly not a trade association. Neither are we a membership organisation in the normal sense. Our membership remains very important to us because it keeps us grounded in real problems and issues. This grounding, complemented by the knowledge we build through research, gives us very valuable consultancy offerings and the ability to serve our members well.
When formed our mission statement was ‘to promote and develop the proper and effective use of steel in construction’. I think that still applies, except one might expand it a little to say ‘steel and steel products’.
I wonder if the great and the good who decided to create an independent body 30 years ago would have expected us to still be around, and I wonder if they could have envisaged how we would mature? Having spent most of the past 20 years here I’m personally glad they made that decision.
SCI Courses |
|
 |
Fire Design of Beams and Columns 15 Sept 15, Webinar |
 |
Steel Connection Design 22 Sep 15, Birmingham |
 |
Steel Frames and Disproportionate Collapse Rules 29 Sep 15, Sheffield |
Vibration of buildingsSCI publication P354: Design of floors for vibration: a new approach (Revised Edition, February 2009) has become a standard reference for designers concerned about the dynamic performance of floors in buildings. The SCI is receiving regular requests to carry out an assessment of the response of floors to footfall excitation by designers who prefer to buy in this expertise. The SCI is able to carry out a very efficient floor response assessment if the designer is able to provide a suitable BIM model of the relevant floor. A report of the findings with recommendations for modifications if appropriate is the output from the assessment. Contact Phil Francis or Antonia Pilpilidou for further information. |
|
||||
New design tool for steelconstruction.infoSCI have completed a new on-line design tool, covering the resistance of composite beams in fire. The new facility is an addition to the existing composite beam checking tool, meaning that resistance at normal temperatures and under fire conditions can be verified at the same time. If the beam is unprotected, the software reports the time to failure, which can be compared to the required period of fire resistance. If the beam is protected, two results are provided – firstly, the critical temperature is reported, so that the fire protection may be specified. Secondly, for a range of fire protection products and thicknesses, the time to failure is reported, which can be compared to the required period of fire resistance. The design tool can be used to readily examine beams and identify if an unprotected solution is viable, perhaps with a slight increase in weight. The new tool is available at www.steelconstruction.info |
|
||||
Offsite Construction ShowWednesday 14 and Thursday 15th October, The SCI, in collaboration with its partners from the Light Steel Forum, recently completed a project to produce best practice guidance for light steel construction. The project was co-funded by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) through the UK Futures Programme. The objective of the UK Futures Programme is to enhance skills in the offsite construction sector with a view to enabling the sector to grow and help to meet the ever-present demand for new housing in the UK. Partners of the project will share a stand at the Offsite Construction Show. Come along to the UKCES stand (stand number A40) to meet Andrew Way, SCI, and discuss the best practice project and any aspects of light steel construction or assessment of your products. |
 |
||||
SCI Annual Event 2015 - Guest speakers and venue confirmed12 November 2015, London The Crystal, Victoria Docks, London The past, present and future of steel construction Register your attendance: education@steel-sci.com |
 |
||||
Latest CertificationHadley Group, Building Products Division has attained SCI Assessed for load span tables for their cladding products. The SCI have calculated load span tables for Hadley cladding products in accordance with Eurocode 3 (EN 1993-1-3). The cladding products included within the scope of the SCI Assessed certificate are the Hadley sinusoidal profile and inner and outer trapezoidal profiles, all in a range of steel gauges. The full scope of the assessment is described in SCI Assessed report RT 1663 (June 2015). For further information please contact Andrew Way at SCI. |
 |
||||
SCI PeopleSue Coker, Publications Administrator, SCI Sue has been with the SCI since 2004, she looks after SCI’s library, available to members, and also SCI’s publication sales. Since joining SCI Sue has seen many trend changes in the types of publications we sell depending on our member’s and customer’s requirements. Our most popular publications are the Blue book and Green book series, however Sue says less obvious titles, including; Acoustic detailing for steel construction (P372) and Stability of steel beams and columns (P360) are of interest. If you are unsure about any publication or cannot find a publication on our Shop, Sue is always happy to take your call.
|
|
||||
SCI Publications |
|||||
 |
 |
 |
|||
Design of floors for vibration. A new approach - Revised edition, February 2009 (P354) This publication presents guidance for assessing the vibration behaviour of floors in steel framed buildings caused by pedestrian traffic. It has particular relevance to composite floors. It describes the phenomenon in both general and technical terms, contains a background commentary and specific design recommendations; their application is illustrated by worked examples. |
Fire resistance design of steel framed buildings (P375) Design for fire resistance is a key requirement for most steel framed buildings. Beams and slabs are required to provide a certain level of load bearing resistance in defined fire situations; slabs are also required to provide insulation and integrity in order to limit the spread of fire. |
Design of composite highway bridges curved in plan (P393) This publication complements two earlier design guides for the design of composite bridges in accordance with the Eurocodes. It recognises that many highway bridges carry roads that are on a curved alignment and the supporting structure follows that curved alignment. The guidance addresses the consequences of the plan curvature on the design. |
|||
|
|
|
|||
SCI Members in the News
Caunton’s progress with BIM
Caunton are proud of the progress they’ve made with BIM in recent years. This was built on a solid foundation of experience in 3D modelling started nearly 30 years ago. The company is pleased to be working now, alongside Tekla, in developing further skills and has cooperated in producing a Caunton / Tekla Case Study. This highlights progress the two companies are making, which we are pleased to show.
SMD Embraces BIM
It feels like BIM is talked about, lectured on and reported in the press constantly. At SMD we have embraced the whole philosophy of information sharing, modelling and incorporation of standardisation for a long time.
Having a direct portal (NBS National BIM Library) in which we can host product model files ready for direct incorporation into a design has the potential to save a huge amount of time and effort on the part of lead designers. SMD are the first decking company to have their product on the BIM library, a fact we are very proud of.
The NBS plug in tool for Autodesk and Revit allows direct import using our products.
All three of SMD's Composite Deck profiles are available for specification via this portal.
Many of our projects are designed using Tekla software which also demonstrates our commitment to the BIM philosophy.
In addition to this there is a collection of 3D standard details on RIBA Product Selector that all designers will find useful to provide some context of what common details look like. These have proved very popular in the past and as a result we have recently added many more.
SEND YOUR NEWS |
Twitter Suggestion
For course reminders, publication updates and article notifications follow SCI on Twitter.
Connect Sign Up |
Refer a friend or collegue who you think may be interested in receiving the SCI Connect Newsletter |
| CLICK TO REGISTER |