Chinese Steel: Inferior
Inferior Steel imports from China that fall apart easily are making U.S. manufacturers and constructions firms more than a little nervous. Reports of failures during initial fabrication and questions about certification documents will mean closer scrutiny.
The biggest concern is hollow structural sections widely used in construction of skyscrapers, bridges, pipelines, office, commercial and school buildings. This high-strength steel is also commonly used in power lifts, cranes, farm equipment, furniture and car trailer hitches.
Failures of this “tube steel” has already happened in several California schools
Chinese high-strength steel tubes and pipes are also a potential problem. They’re used extensively in power plants and in large industrial boilers, and must withstand enormous pressures and hellish heat around the clock for weeks or months on end. This kind of steel also is used extensively in scaffolding that’s erected on building exteriors during construction or renovation, as well as for interior work.
Inferior high-strength steel could cause catastrophic failures of buildings, pipelines or in power plants’ boiler tubing. This is a large worry for structural engineers who will be working overtime as states embark on what amounts to a crash program to shore up bridges, following the collapse of the Minnesota span over the Mississippi River. China is already seeing problems. A Chinese power plant exploded recently when high-strength steel tubing blew out, says Roger Schagrin, general counsel for the Committee on Pipe and Tube Imports, which represents U.S. manufacturers of these products.
The following from the Shanghai Daily
HALF the steel material sold at wholesale markets and now being used in construction has failed quality tests.
The Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau inspected 52 batches of steel material at three markets and 15 construction sites in seven districts, including Xuhui, Zhabei and Baoshan, and officials said 27 batches had quality problems.
The tested materials were too light to reach the country’s standard – some of the products were five times lighter than the required weight.
About 22 percent of the tested products failed tension tests. Buildings with such steel would not be able to withstand major earthquakes, the bureau said.
Forty-eight percent of the tested material had inadequate amounts of carbon. Shortage of carbon can cause steel to break easily, officials explained.
Bear in mind this point folks:
The US is importing a lot of cheap inferior Chinese steel, up from almost nothing a couple of years ago. The importers include the US government!
First it was food, then toys, then medicine, now steel. Greed has taken over throwing reason and common sense out the window.
© 2008, The Brass Monkey Blog . Net. All rights reserved. Feel free to use any or all of this post in your blog. However a link back to us would be appreciated =)
Comments
2 Responses to “Chinese Steel: Inferior”Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] as an act of terror and be prosecuted accordingly! Relating to building products please see also Chinese Steel: Inferior published here in April of 2008. Not to mention numerous other posts on dangerous [...]
[...] Originally Posted by HistorianDude If you believe that WTC7 did that, then I call your swamp and raise you one marsh. Marshes actually have some value Seriously though, I find the whole thing suspicious. My personal theory is that when these buildings were built in the 1970's they used inferior steel and shody construction to cut corners and make more money. 1967 was the first time the US imported more steel than it exported. Reminds me of the rebuilding of the Denver runways where it turned out they added more sand just to make more money. No one knew it until the runways started to crumble after plane landing. Having all buildings come down almost identically, but not St. George Orthodox church which was built in 1832 – it was completely buried by the collapse of the south tower. Add in the fact tower 7 was not hit by a plane – if not explosives, that can be the only other explanation – inferior steel. Destruction of Evidence from Ground Zero at the World Trade Center – SourceWatch "The investigation into the collapse of the World Trade Center has been hampered by the destruction of steel wreckage that could hold vital clues about why the twin towers fell, a fire expert says. … Glenn Corbett, a fire science professor at John Jay College, criticized New York City's decision to melt down and recycle tons of charred and twisted steel from the trade center." Chinese Steel: Inferior [...]