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An Access Platform Package With Ball Joint Handrail
Ball joint stanchions, handrail tubes and base plates laid out on the workshop floor before hot-dip galvanizing, photographed by the factory.
The Challenge
A platform package where the deck grating and the edge protection had to arrive together, in one finish, with base plates already drilled to the steelwork underneath.
Customer Pain Points
- Grating and handrail bought separately arrive weeks apart and in different finishes
- Handrail fabricated on site costs site labour rates at every corner
- Base plates drilled to the wrong pattern stop an installation dead
What Was Specified
Ball joint stanchions at 48 x 3.25 mm with 76 x 3 mm drilled balls and 42.3 x 3.25 mm rail, base plates drilled to the steelwork pattern before galvanizing, produced and coated in the same batch as the deck grating.
The Result
The package left the plant as one shipment in one finish. The photograph is the factory’s own, taken before galvanizing.
Client name, contract value and quantity are not published by the source site and are not invented here. The photograph is the factory’s own.
How Work Like This Is Built
Drawing And 3D Model
A grating that is wrong on paper is wrong in steel, and steel is expensive to be wrong in.
The design team models the panel, the frame and the opening it has to sit in before any bar is cut, so bearing bar pitch, panel division and frame clearance are agreed in a drawing rather than discovered on site.
Material Selection
Carbon steel and stainless steel fail in completely different places.
Carbon steel with a hot-dip galvanized coat for general traffic and drainage, stainless steel with acid passivation where washdown, chloride or food-grade cleaning is involved. Aluminium alloy is produced where weight is the constraint.
Cutting And Stamping
Bar ends that are not square never sit flat in a frame.
Bearing bar and cross bar stock is cut and stamped on the plant’s laser cutting and stamping equipment, which is also what makes serrated and toothed edges repeatable across a batch.
Pressure Welding Or Press Locking
The joint between bearing bar and cross bar is the whole strength of a panel.
Welded panels are produced on the automatic pressure welding line. Press locked panels are assembled by forcing the cross bar into the bearing bar under pressure, which is what gives a flush top surface without a weld bead.
Framing And Fabrication
Most grating complaints are about edges, not about the mesh.
Banding bar, end plates, hooks, hinges, lifting handles and cut-outs for pipework are fabricated to the drawing, so the panel arrives as a finished cover rather than as a sheet to be trimmed on site.
Surface Treatment
The coating decides how many winters a panel survives.
Hot-dip galvanizing, electroplated galvanizing, painting or acid passivation, chosen against the environment the panel will live in rather than against the invoice.
Inspection Before Packing
A panel that does not drop into its frame is scrap once it is in a container.
Panels are checked against the drawing for size, squareness, bar pitch and coating finish before they are banded and stacked.
Packing And Export
Grating is heavy, sharp and easy to damage in transit.
Panels are stacked flat, banded and packed for sea freight, which is the route most of this plant’s output takes.
Products From The Families Involved
Ball Joint Stanchion With Handrail
Hot-dip galvanized ball joint stanchion system: 48 x 3.25 mm post, 76 x 3 mm drilled ball and 42.3 x 3.25 mm handrail tube, with a 6 mm base plate.
See the specification
Ball Joint Stanchion Post
The stanchion post on its own: 48 x 3.25 mm tube with a 76 x 3 mm drilled ball and a 6 mm base plate, hot-dip galvanized, supplied without rail.
See the specification
Welded Steel Grating 32x3 With Round Cross Bar
Pressure-welded carbon steel panel on 32x3 bearing bar with a 6 mm round cross bar, hot-dip galvanized, a step up in section from the 30x2.5 panel.
See the specificationProduct Families On This Page
Planning A Project Like This
Send a photograph of the position, the mounting available and the quantity you are planning. A drawing and a quotation come back by email.