Steel Construction Joining Questions

By mckayn Date 07-27-2004 08:12

Hello.

I am a US student currently interning in Germany. One of the tasks I have been assigned is to research differences and similarities between US codes & Standards (ASME, ANSI, AWS) and European/German Codes & Standards. This assignment will be focused on joining methods in steel construction. The main joining methods would be spot welding, clinching and riveting.

So I was hoping to get some input on which codes and stadards people use in industry in the USA. If you can please provide the code number and where it is from and what it pertains to.

Also if you know where any codes and standards can be found without purchasing them that would be a great help.

Finally if you know anything about the differences between US and European codes and standards that would help too.

Thanks. Nick

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 07-27-2004 11:30

Hi Nick,
One code that comes to mind in Structural Steel Construction is AWS D1.3-98 which deals with sheet steel.
- Arc Spot Welds
-- Sheet steel to sheet steel
-- Sheet steel to supporting member

There are the General Provisions of the code and it's scope in Section 1;
There are design allowables listed in Section 2;
There are prequalification of WPSs in Section 3;
There are Qualifications provisions listed in Section 4 for WPSs and Welders;
Section 5 deals with Fabrication;
Section 6 deals with Inspection;
And Finally Section 7 deals with Stud Welding.

I'm afraid that unless someone else has a source for referencing all of these other codes along with the one that I mentioned, we are all forced to purchase these documents/codes just to view them. Possibly you can find someone willing to let you borrow what you need, to keep you from having to purchase them, just to view them.

I know this will sound silly as you don't know without looking at the codes themselves, but I'll throw this out there, "if" you know of a section of the code that you need, some of us can probably type/post the paragraphs that you are particularly interested in.
Best wishes in your research,
John Wright

By G.S.Crisi (****)

Date 08-05-2004 19:33

If you're talking of structural steel, then it's a must that you take a look at the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) site: www.aisc.org
From there, you can download a few standards for free. The others must be bought.
The corrisponding German counterpart is VDI, whose site shouldn't be difficult to find out. The problem is that not all of the German standards are translated into English. Too bad!
If you're talking of pressure vessels, then it's a must that you take a look at ASME Code Section VIII, which is awful expensive and can not be downloaded for free from ASME's site. Too bad!
The corrisponding German counterpart is AD Merkblatter, which has been published also in English.
The main difference between German and US standards is that German ones are metric, although in the last years most American standards have been published showing metric units between brackets.
By the way, is riveting still used, other than in airplanes? More than 40 years have passed since I saw the last riveted joint in my life.
Giovanni S. Crisi
Sao Paulo - Brazil