TPI January 2009

Building Construct ion and Asked to name the most valuable product in the building trades, a construction engineer would probably insist on naming two: hollow structural sections (HSS), and mechanical or “as-welded” tubing. The selections are unarguable. HSS is the high-strength welded steel tubing that provides the weight-bearing element in construction. Similarly useful is mechanical tubing, which offers a cost-effective commodity for a wide range of building applications — little or no additional processing needed. This workhorse of the construction industry is produced in squares, rectangles, and rounds in a wide range of sizes and within close tolerances. Between them, these two go far toward ensuring strength and stability, without which every other feature of a structure would be rendered irrelevant. Even as it was becoming apparent that exposed structural tubing would increasingly require painting or powder coating, surface-critical tubing was already available. When prefabricated pedestrian bridges with spans to 80 feet called for high strength with absolute corrosion resistance, low-alloy Corten weathering tubing was there. As-welded and HSS are the gold standard in construction engineering, and they can be expected to hold the position into the foreseeable future. But, in the highly competitive tube and pipe industry of 2009, all makers of tubing products for building are aware of the unremitting necessity to anticipate the requirements of their sector. Meeting those requirements is their pride as well as their profession. Photo – Saint-Gobain Pipelines – see page 44

42

Tube Products International January 2009

www.read-tpi.com