Rubb galvanizes relations with steel manufacture

Rubb UK’s structural engineer has been building a close relationship with one of the world’s leading steel manufacturers Tata Steel.

Dale Robinson arranged for Steve Whitfield, chartered member of the Institute of Structural Engineers and Manager of Technical Marketing for Tata Steel Tubes, to visit Rubb buildings to deliver a seminar to the company’s technical team and production manager.

Tata Steel Group is a major global steel producer with a crude steel capacity of 28 million tonnes per annum. Tata has manufacturing sites in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, France and Belgium and employs around 80,000 people worldwide.

The seminar ‘Essentials of Structural Hollow Sections’ aimed to raise awareness about Structural Hollow Sections. The key aspects discussed were

• Manufacture of Structural Hollow Sections
• Comparison between Hot Finished and Cold Formed
• Specification and Certification of Structural Steelwork
• Tata Steel Hollow Sections

The one-and-a-half hour seminar was well received at a time when the UK is going through a substantial change with design legislation and in particular the introduction of CE marking. Rubb uses a large amount of hollow section, of varying grades and specification and a thorough understanding of hollow sections is essential.

CE stands for European conformity and is a manufacturer’s declaration that the product complies with the requirements of the relevant European health, safety and environmental protection legislation. CE marking will be mandatory from March 2014 and Rubb is already well on the way to meeting the stringent requirements to provide CE marking.

The seminar was useful for people with varying knowledge of steel hollow sections and Steve was on hand to answer all questions raised. The seminar also gave an in-depth view of the documentation required to meet CE marking which is incorporated into Rubb’s Quality Assurance system.Following on from the seminar Rubb will visit the steel mill at Tata’s Hartlepool site where a tour of the manufacturing plant will take place.

Dale said: “This has been a very successful experience for Rubb and this type of continued professional development is high on our agenda. We will continue to draw upon external knowledge and implement seminars on a regular basis to help us maintain market leadership.”