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HD Bolt Placements in Steel Frame Construction with 360° Bolt

360 bolt

360° Bolt - set to revolutionise steel frame construction

After almost 20 years in the steel construction industry, Victorian brothers Ted and Darek Sygidus from SGA Engineering felt there had to be a better way to deal with costly delays due to inaccuracies with holding down [HD] bolt placements and relatively minor misalignments with baseplates.

"We fabricate and erect," 360° Bolt's National Project Manager Ted Sygidus said, "so we get see both sides of the picture. Typically there is a tolerance with the baseplate holes of around 6mm, and while the accuracy of foundations and cage placements in existing HD footings is improving with technology, sometimes you're faced with things like steel expansion due to temperature, or minor twisting during erection, so 6mm becomes too tight a tolerance.

"Yes, we can fix the situation on-site, but that becomes very time consuming, especially when you consider a site with up to 100 columns. That can create huge delays in the whole project, when a system like 360° Bolt can stretch your tolerance to 30mm using the patented swivel design enclosed in the base of the product, and allow the baseplate to move off square as well.

"We are incredibly strict with our fabrication, and use all the latest techniques to ensure we limit misalignments, but inevitably they occur, and the process to fix them can be incredibly costly across the whole job - from the changes on-site to the baseplate, to the possibility of changing the location of an HD bolt, and then the subsequent engineering checks and approvals that need to be completed before the job can continue. On a large scale project it can add weeks to the erection time, and that can be incredibly costly for everyone concerned."

During 2011, the Sygidus brothers began work on the 360° Bolt project and by October were fine-tuning the prototypes. Immediately prior to Christmas the all clear was given for the recycled plastic outer tubes to be produced, with the first shipment expected to be ready for delivery to site during February 2012.

"From Ted's original concept, we developed a prototype in-house," the project's National Development Manager Darek Sygidus confirmed.

"We trialled it on one of our own projects to get a feel for it, then started to fine tune the process, all the while consulting engineers and fabricators to ensure the product was both effective, and easy to use.

"We went for durable recycled plastic because it couldn't rust, and because we could modify the tube to increase the length for a variety of bolt sizes [M12-260 to M30-650]. We also made it versatile enough to modify to suit multiple HD bolt layouts.

"It has been designed to all the relevant Australian Standards and tested under controlled conditions by NATA revealing amongst other things, that the holding down plates are not even yielding at the HD bolts' ultimate capacity.

"In fact even the galvanised top plate complete with mounting holes (for attaching it to formwork) and survey marks (cross-hairs) is stronger than we thought as we discovered when Ted found it could withstand his 110kg without bending or any deformation of the durable plastic tubes.

"Unlike the standard cages which can often begin to rust before the concrete is even poured, 360° Bolt can be constructed on-site without any welding required, and all parts are either galvanised steel (bolts and top plate) or plastic.

"The bolts all come with high visibility caps so that you can easily see them on site and avoid getting concrete into the threads, and the bolts sit within the tubes under plastic caps so that they remain centred and also to keep any excess concrete from going into the tubes."

holding down bolt placement systems

Understanding the vagaries of site works and construction processes, the team at SGA provide a variety of options with 360° Bolt, from delivery on-site ready to locate in position, or in flat-pack form so that the erection team can put them together insitu. They'll also come to the site and place them for you..

"We use all the latest site location technology to ensure they're placed well within tolerance, so we are happy to send a team to place the 360° Bolt cages ourselves," Ted Sygidus admitted, "and if we do that and they're not right, we'll rectify the situation at our cost, that's how confident we are in the product."

Already the team have had the prototype on display, getting rave reviews from industry members at the annual Master Builders National Conference in Queensland during November.

"We were a bit behind the eight-ball in getting the prototype ready, but we were there," Darek Sygidus admitted, "and we attracted quite a bit of interest. Our main focus now though is getting the product ready for release during February (keep an eye on the www.360bolt.com for updates), because we have a number of our own projects were keen to complete with 360° Bolt cages.

"That will provide us even more data on just how cost effective they can be as we eliminate all those time delays that invariably send projects over budget."

For more information on 360° Bolt, please visit the website or social media pages, and take a look at the introductory video, and to get a costing on the new product or ask any questions of the 360° Bolt team, please email or call 03 9747 9600.

For more information on 360° Bolt, please visit:

Website: www.360Bolt.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/360Bolt
Twitter: www.twitter.com/360Bolt
YouTube: www.youtube.com/The360Bolt

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