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shop assembled steel, welded or bolted?

shop assembled steel, welded or bolted?

shop assembled steel, welded or bolted?

(OP)
is it easier to bolt or weld a skid assembly in the shop? say I have a 20'x12' skid, no columns, just beams connected to each other.

RE: shop assembled steel, welded or bolted?

(OP)
I noticed the vendor drawings for skid supporting equipment always have beam-beam connection as welded even if shear connection only.
is it easier in the shop to weld everything as opposed to bolting?
I always use bolted connection if field assembled, field welding only if bolted cant be used.

RE: shop assembled steel, welded or bolted?

Depends on the shop. For a smaller shop that might be doing an equipment skid, they probably don't have a lot of automated equipment for drilling holes.

RE: shop assembled steel, welded or bolted?

Delagina:
As you suggest, we usually/often use bolting in the field because welding equipment and good welders are not readily available out in the field, and at small sites. Most shops today, are set up to do welding. The beam cutting, coping, beveling, etc. are pretty much in one work line out in the shop, and flow nicely; then the beams have to be moved to another line for hole punching, which adds handling and cost for a couple holes at each end of each beam. Then, these skids are being man handled a number of times during fab., assembly of parts onto the skids, etc., and these are all chances for the bolts to loosen, and not be checked again for tightness. Shipping size may also come into play and dictate bolted connections in an otherwise welded skid. It’s pretty much a fabricator (shop practice and set-up) and client choice.

RE: shop assembled steel, welded or bolted?

A side note:

With skid assemblies, I might do shear connections for a really light item... but for anything substantial I'd be giving at least some connection on the flanges to give some torsional and moment restraint. If people start manhandling things, lifting them, pulling them around or otherwise doing odd things in transport it adds a lot more robustness. You don't want somebody to lift things at a weird angle and have a shear connection rip because someone accidently induced torsion in a member.

Every design-build skid I've seen done by a fab shop basically does this too, so I don't think it's me over-engineering things.

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