Steel shop drawings

What it contains

• member-by-member shop drawings,
• material take-offs,
• welding and bolting symbols,
• part marking, assembly sequence.

Where it sits in the chain

Shop drawings are produced from the detailed design, for the manufacturer, matching the equipment and technology of the works. They generally contain no structural calculation — the design stays in the detailed design. Shop drawings.

That also settles the responsibilities:

• the structural engineer is responsible for the design,
• the shop-drawing designer for producing the drawings in accordance with the detailed design and to suit the manufacturing technology,
• the manufacturer for making it to the shop drawings.

If it emerges during shop drawing that the detailed design does not solve something, it has to be referred back — not solved in the shop drawings.

What the execution class means

For steelwork, a separate standard sets the fabrication and execution requirements, with execution classes. The class has to be specified by the designer — the fabricator does not decide it, and it cannot be left out. EN 1090 and execution classes.

Surface protection

The shop drawings also cover what corrosion protection is applied, at what film thickness, and to what grade of surface preparation. Surface protection systems · Hot-dip galvanising.

With hot-dip galvanising the geometric consequences — size, vent holes, distortion — have to be handled at the drawing board, not in the galvanising plant.

In LGS we go further

With thin-walled structures we do not stop at the drawing: we go through to the machine program. That is a separate service. LGS shop design.

The point

Shop drawings are a translation: they translate the designed structure into the language of a particular works. What has not been designed cannot be translated.