When you look around your world, it’s highly likely your eyes will fall on something manufactured with stud welding. Whether it was built relying on the composite construction of shear connectors, steel, and concrete (such as bridges and roads), or with threaded fasteners or food-grade welding (such as automobiles and kitchen appliances). There are thousands of applications of stud welding that build the objects, structures, and tools we interact with on a daily basis. For any type of stud welding operation, including drawn arc, capacitor discharge (CD), and short cycle, Northland Fastening Systems (NFS) supplies a comprehensive selection of welding tools for rent or purchase, studs in varying dimensions, custom stud options, and welding accessories. If you’re working with sheet metal or fabricating with structural steel welding, we have the supplies you need to get the job done.
Structural Steel Welding
The structural steel welding and sheet metal industries are just some of the many sectors NFS provides with a complete range of supplies. Both structural steel and sheet metal are important materials in their own ways, but they are often used in very different applications.
Composite Construction:
Structural steel, such as beams, girders, columns, tubes, and other extruded parts, are more commonly used in composite constructions. Structural steel has a high load-bearing capacity, relatively high thermal resistance, tensile strength, and corrosion resistance. This makes structural steel ideal for heavy-duty manufacturing. In fact, most multistory buildings, like skyscrapers, rely on structural steel for their height. When combined with stud welded shear connectors, structural steel can also be attached to concrete slabs. This composite type of construction and other composite builds using studs or shear connectors is used in building bridges, roads, high-rise building floors, airport runways, and much more. With shear connector studs, steel and concrete composites have proven to be one of the safest and longest lasting applications for large-scale structures.
Cosmetic Construction:
Sheet metal, on the other hand, is more commonly used to create sleek, cosmetically desirable finishes. While sheet metals are used in structural fabrication in many instances, it’s often thinner, more flexible, and less suited to heavy-duty building. However, because studs can be welded onto even very thin sheet metal without leaving a mark on the opposite side of the weld surface, it’s ideal for creating clean designs that are attached with strong connection points. Sheet metal stud welding is used cosmetically in many applications, such as building exteriors, vehicles, appliances, electrical enclosures, ships, water towers, and more.
In both of its respective applications, with structural steel and sheet metal, stud welding will save time and money while also performing extremely strong and durable fastening systems.
To learn more about sheet metal and structural steel welding contact, NFS at (651) 730-7770. You can also request a quote online to get started with us today.