TPi April 2012

construct ion

Strength in prefabrication BSS Industrial is promoting its prefabrication service, which utilises specialist knowledge by working closely with customers and modularisation manufacturers.

Peter Sullivan, operations director, said, “In the current economic climate, we believe that it is our responsibility to support customers and their clients as much as possible. Taking the prefabrication and modularisation service in-house would remove the flexibility and reduce the range of solutions on offer whilst importantly taking business away from our customers. Our approach is to work with them to provide freedom of choice and add value to find the best solution.” BSS Industrial offers a flexible and practical build solution in addition to technical support from conception through to completion. The company works to provide the latest prefabrication design expertise in the production of the highest quality pipework, bracket and module solutions for both new and refurbishment projects.

The BSS Industrial approach is to work with customers and the expertise of five leading modularisation manufacturers to develop the best possible solution. The distributor uses this strategy to

support fabricators and customers as well as benefitting from their specialist knowledge. BSS Industrial is also a distributor for major modular builders including CHT, SES, Balfour and MEP.

BSS Industrial – UK enquiries@bssgroup.com www.bssindustrial.co.uk

BSS Industrial is promoting its prefabrication service

Hollow structural section education modules The Steel Tube Institute of North America (STINA), in conjunction with Thornton-Tomasetti, a leader in engineering design, investigation and analysis, has made available the first module in a three-part continuing education series about steel hollow structural sections (HSS). education credits is another part of the educational and informational materials about HSS that STINA provides for customers, architects, architectural professors and students, engineers and fabricators. We are very fortunate to have formed a partnership with Thornton-Tomasetti, one of the world’s leading engineering firms. Their working knowledge of HSS, its features and uses will be of great value to our industry.” effort that would improve manufactur- ing techniques and inform customers about their products’ utility, versatil- ity and competitive advantages. This, along with providing a forum for the discussion of issues impacting the industry, remains the basic motivation for the institute’s efforts. The institute’s HSS committee includes leading producers of HSS in the US and Canada.

The free, self-administered module is offered on STINA’s HSS website (www. hss-steeltubing.org) and participants can earn 1PDHs/0.1CEUs by success- fully completing the module. The ‘What is HSS?’ module includes, in addition to other information, the methods of manufacturing HSS; material specifications; the tolerances, properties and structural efficiencies of HSS; economic considerations; and available surface coatings. Bill Wolfe, executive director of STINA, said that the institute has been supplying information about HSS to designers and specifiers for more than 20 years: “This series of continuing

The group has been active as a STINA committee for more than 20 years, providing technical and design help for the industry, and promoting the features, benefits and uses of steel HSS to specifiers, users and others in a wide variety of end markets, including construction, highway, bridge, equipment and transportation markets.

Thornton-Tomasetti serves clients worldwide on projects of all sizes and complexity, including some of the tallest buildings and longest spans in the world. Founded in 1956, Thornton-Tomasetti is a 550-person organisation of engineers and architects collaborating from offices across the United States and in Asia- Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. STINA was formed in 1930 when a group of manufacturers joined forces to promote and market steel tubing. Their goal was to mount a cooperative

Steel Tube Institute of North America – USA mbula@steeltubeinstitute.org www.hss-steeltubing.org

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Tube Products International April 2012

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