Ground-breaking paint technology and special features in its new design software, will bring major time and cost savings for designers and developers of steel-framed buildings, claims Fabsec.
The company says FBeam 2006 introduces an innovative intumescent coating developed by Leigh’s Paints, which reduces the paint thickness required to achieve up to two hours’ fire resistance. The need for less protective paint significantly cuts the cost of producing fire-engineered steel beams. It also means the intumescent coating can be applied off-site, causing less disruption to the construction schedule.
Phil Toczek, managing director of Fabsec said: “We are confident that this breakthrough will generate significant savings on overall build costs.”
FBeam 2006 also gives structural engineers new project capability to manage multiple optimised beams. It provides easy storage and retrieval of multiple beam designs, which can be stored by project, by floor and by beam type. Multiple beam analysis and rationalisation of designs (to create better batch production for manufacture) are all now possible.
Furthermore, FBeam 2006 pioneers a comprehensive two-way link to the RAM Structural System, to transform the speed and time needed to complete frame analysis. Designers will be able to analyse the building frame with the RAM software, and export groups of beams to FBeam 2006 for simultaneous production of optimum cellular beam designs. Optimised beams can then be saved back to the RAM model, along with web opening details. The process promises major design time saving, says Fabsec, and removes the possibility of data entry errors for multiple beam designs
