Steel’s properties make it the best building material for sustainable industrial construction. It is durable, strong, and versatile, providing cost-effective solutions with diverse designs.
Its strength-to-weight ratio enables architects and engineers to be creative and flexible with their solutions for new structures. The use of steel also allows various environmental standards to be met, such as those for low or zero carbon buildings. Above all, using steel as a building material means saving a great deal of energy, not only during the design and construction phases, but also throughout the building’s entire life cycle. The material can also be recycled after use to complete the circle, which translates to sustainability.
The advantages that make steel your best choice as the main material for your business facility are manifold.
Advantages of steel in terms of design:
– Great flexibility in project design
– Light and slender structures, open to light
– Larger spans, more flexible floor plans, and greater building space efficiency compared to concrete
– Simplicity of construction
– More options for static calculations
Technical advantages:
– Structural rigidity
– Easy to combine with other materials
– Systemic solutions
– High-tech manufacturin
– Well-tried, safe, and high-quality design solutions
Safety advantages:
– Low weight
– Non-flammable
– Earthquake-resistant construction
– High ductility of structures
– Fabrication easy to inspect visually
– Installation easy to control
Environmental advantages of steel:
– It is the most recycled material in the world: up to 100% of steel materials can be recycled;
– It can be reused with the same properties;
– It has the best strength-to-weight ratio of commonly used materials, so less transport is needed for construction, which reduces the carbon footprint;
– Since most of the steel structure components are produced in one place and with great accuracy, energy consumption is optimized and the amount of waste is minimized;
– The time of construction on site and the use of heavy machinery is reduced;
– Thanks to hot galvanizing, steel structures have a very long service life and require little maintenance;
– When properly manufactured, the constructions have low heat losses.
Economic advantages:
– Production in one place under guaranteed work conditions (independence from weather conditions, easier quality assurance)
– Rapid manufacture of the components
– Reduced transport costs
– Speedy assembly on site (lower site costs)
– Dry construction
– Smaller foundations
– Easy connection to utilities
– CAD/CAM/BIM design and production enable high speed and quality
– Easy maintenance
– Easy to adapt, reinforce, or upgrade
– High durability
– Low costs of dismantling and decommissioning
– Reusability