Steel trusses fabrication requires a well-equipped workshop, experience, and attention to detail. What makes a good fabricator? Learn from our experts.

Steel Trusses Fabrication, Structural Beam Workshop Tour

Steel trusses hold the roof over your head and support the floor under your feet. But how are they produced, and what does it take to do steel trusses fabrication properly? Our expert takes you on a tour to the fabricator workshop, watch out for those sparks.

Steel trusses, the construction site begins in the fabricator’s workshop

Both workshop and factory-fabricated steel trusses today are rather high-tech creations, manufactured with extensive use of modern technology and capable of serving for decades to come.

In fact, the use of steel roof trusses has revolutionized the house building industry by really shortening the erection time and reducing labor costs, thus making it much more time and cost-efficient.

Steel trusses fabrication in the workshop is nothing else but the house construction process, done in the structural steel fabricator’s workshop.

There are numerous advantages to this type of approach, particularly when steel structures fabricated are supposed to provide roof and floor support for decades to come.

Advantages of steel trusses

Yes, steel trusses are very much unlike those wood trusses.

Structural steel trusses are impervious to mold, fungus, pests, you name it. Give them a coat or two of protection against water- and they’ll resist humidity and rust it might otherwise produce. That’s the beauty and a major advantage of steel trusses- a long life span with virtually zero maintenance costs. Along with their lighter weight/high strength combination, it makes steel trusses an easy choice. Builders and contractors love them, too, for the ease of use and great functionality.

When doing steel truss fabrication for your construction project, the fabricator has to adhere to guidelines and regulations and meet standard requirements for the quality of the trusses produced. Only then you can have all the benefits steel trusses can provide.

Let’s take a look at how it’s done, shall we?

There’s an important distinction to be made, and that is of standard steel trusses, that are manufactured in the factory environment, and custom metal trusses, manufactured in structural steel fabricator workshop.

Standard factory steel trusses fabrication

The standardized, factory-type of steel truss manufacturing helps to reduce the costs of trusses and at the same type allows for a very thorough standardized quality control during the production. Trusses here are produced in large, industrial-size batches, from standard size parts using industrial grade forming process with large equipment. Structural Beam works with the best suppliers of standard steel trusses in the industry, call us today at +1 773-917-8998 for a free price quotation!

Custom trusses fabrication

The other type of metal truss is a custom metal truss, which is fabricated in the structural steel fabricator’s workshop. It’s a much more creative task than mechanistically churning out hundreds upon thousands of standard steel trusses at the factory.

It requires the fabricator to read and understand the engineer’s blueprints and diagrams, and have a lot of experience in reproducing the design in the structural steel product of choice, be it a hot-rolled beam or a cold-formed HSS profile.

However, the stages and the operations of steel trusses fabrication are very similar. Let’s take a closer look at the equipment and other details of a quality steel truss fabrication process.

Even though some decades ago steel fabrication contractors were using hammers and saws, today’s structural steel fabrication workshop requires some advanced and sophisticated equipment to create high-quality steel trusses of exact dimensions, able to withstand the power of the wind and the weight of snow, or, in case of floor joists, the live load of you and your fam roaming around that living room.

• Modern saws are still in fashion, too- nothing is better for straight cuts to be done inexpensively. But more sophisticated machinery is widely used for metal trusses fabrication today.
• Water jets, CNC plasma cutters, and computer-controlled lasers are casually used in the fabrication of steel trusses today. Frankly speaking, you can’t really produce high-quality precision metal trusses without using those.
• CNC press breaks and rolling equipment to shape the metal sheets
• high-pressure notches for hole punching
• various welding systems for hot and cold-formed structural steel materials

The steel truss fabrication process, three main stages

The process of fabrication requires a highly skilled and experienced workforce, coordinated and supervised by a qualified engineer. Let’s see how the custom steel truss fabrication process unfolds.

Cutting it all up

The first stage is the cutting stage. Metal sheets, beams, HSS have to be cut to the exact size, determined by the engineer’s blueprints. The simple cuts are done by the saws, the more intricate cuts are for the CNC water jets, industrial lasers, and plasma cutters, which produce complicated cut curvatures with high precision and very little waste.

Shaping it with precision

Roll forming, a type of ultra-careful bending, and press brake, operated by skillful ironworkers, do the job of preparing those cut metal sheet pieces to be welded onto the joints of the steel truss, bracing them together into one rigid structure. Holes are punched at this stage, too.

Assembling of the steel trusses

A very important stage, when the steel truss is actually born as a single structural element. Using appropriate welding equipment and techniques, certified welders put it all together, following the best practices of the trade and strictly following engineer’s blueprints and diagrams

Applying protective coating

A protective coating is applied, modern protective paint technology helps to make sure that the steel won’t be exposed to the elements and thus will be protected from rust. This is done to make sure, that the steel truss will be serving for decades to come, providing that support to the roof or the floor, wherever its service place happens to be.

Regulatory compliance, best practices

Since steel trusses are important and critical parts of the house, the fabricator must be aware of all the relevant standards for a certain type of steel truss he’s manufacturing and follow all relevant local laws and regulations to ensure both safeties of you and your family under that roof, and uninterrupted flow of the whole construction project.

If you choose your custom steel trusses fabricator wisely, he’ll build you those perfect trusses for the roof of your home and for the floors you and your family will be walking upon, without thinking twice before making every step. They will serve you for decades to come and save you a lot of money on maintenance.

How are steel trusses fabricated?

Steel trusses are fabricated in the workshop or in the factory, according to stringent industrial standards and by qualified ironworkers, using advanced equipment. All that helps to ensure the quality of the trusses and the safety for the end-users: you and your family. At Structural Beam, your local, Chicago Il. one-stop structural steel solutions providing company, we have various types of quality steel trusses available, call us today at +1 773-917-8998 and get a free quote for your project!

What is a truss fabricator?

A steel truss fabricator is a structural steel fabrication company, that manufactures steel trusses, either in a factory or in a workshop environment. It is a technological process, that requires knowledge, experience, and thorough quality control throughout the whole process.

What is truss in steel structure?

A truss is a composite structural member, consisting of secondary members like chords and webs, and used as a floor or roof support. Steel trusses allow a part of the house construction to be done in a workshop, reducing the project’s lengths and cost. If you are looking to buy steel trusses near you, in Chicago, Il. area, Structural Beam got them! Call +1 773-917-8998, tell us about your project, and get a free estimate!

What metal is used for trusses?

Both hot-rolled and cold-formed structural steel is used for metal trusses manufacturing, along with aluminum. The choice of material is determined by an engineer, according to the requirements of a particular project. Get in touch with us today, we’ll help you to choose an adequate truss solution for your house construction process.