What is structural steel?

Structural steel Malaysia construction owners are talking about is a metal construction material that is fundamentally identified as steel optimised for building construction. This kind of steel is way more different than those used in producing kitchen utensils, or engineering tools. Structural steel in general is carbon steel that is made up of a chemical composition of iron and carbon. Any type of steel that has up to 2.1 per cent of carbon contents is considered structural steel. The more carbon content the material has, the more strength that material yields. Making it less ductile when pressure is applied. 

How do we grade them?

There are currently 4 types of steel so far. 

Carbon steels: Structural steel is tailored carbon steels with no other alloy element than iron and carbon added. They usually have a property of not exceeding this limit of 0.4-0.6% of copper, 1.6% of manganese, and 0.6% of silicone. This kind of steel is commonly used in structural pipes and tubing. 

High-strength, low-alloy steels: this material is optimised for mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. It has the property of up to 2% of manganese and a trace amount of chromium, nickel, molybdenum, nitrogen, vanadium, niobium, and titanium used to alter the properties of the outcome. It is often used in structural shapes and steel plates. 

Forged steels: this shaping process will provide the steel with a uniform grain structure to the steel that improves the steel purity by reducing voids, and gas bubbles with the increases of the overall strength. 

Quenched & tempered alloy steels: the process will strengthen the steel structure by spontaneously heating and cooling the steel with water, oil, forced air, and nitrogen. 

Different shapes of structural steel

There are about 9 shapes of steel for a various applications:

• Angled sections: right-angled, L-shaped steel sections with equal or unequal lengths that are used to support steel structure by joining steel rebar together to reinforce a steel bed frame. 
• Tubular hollow sections: these are high torsional resistance circular pipe-like steel sections that could withstand high weight and pressure without being transformed. 
• Flat sections: these are also called “plates” as they can be connected to other sections to reinforce the structure’s strength.
• Parallel flange channels: these are usually U-shaped steel sections with right-angled corners. Thus, they must have a strength-to-weight ratio, making them lighter when compared with the loads they have to support. 
• Rectangular hollow sections: similar to Tubular hollow sections, but, these come in as rectangular sections with high torsional resistance. 
• Square hollow sections:  these sections are less popular than most sections as their shapes are not compatible with fusing many other structural steel shapes. They are commonly applied for columns or posts of a structure.
• Universal beams: also known as H-beams due to their similar shape of the capital letter “H”, or their wide flange beams. Universal beams are used for cross-sections for grinders.