Codes, Standards, Specification Promises -Why Details Matter in Steel Pole Tower Fabrication!

摘要

Very serious consequences can and do occur when attention to even the seemingly innocuous of details of Codes, Standards, Specifications & Promises (either unintentionally or intentionally) are not strictly complied with, or kept. Codes, Standards, and Specifications are written the way they are for a reason -to incorporate "consensus best practices" and/or to remedy practices that have been demonstrated to have created a structural performance problem, or worse, a structural failure. When we consider that a structural failure of a pole or tower can most often be traced back to a failure to comply with a Code, Standard, Specification or a Promises (all become human errors) we then realize how important those details can be. Whether the error was an error of knowledge/training (such as effects of a "taped edge" at the top of a below grade barrier coating); an error of performance (perhaps an incorrectly input loading condition during design, or failure to properly review a Material test report before production); or the worst of all errors, an error of intent (cutting corners - i.e. a welder's intentional failure to properly follow a developed welding procedure or the Welding Code's minimum requirements for "preheat" before welding on a heavy base plates); they are still human errors. We write Codes, Standards, Specifications, Guidelines, etc. in order to discuss these errors as an Industry or Company and to write instructions both to educate everyone on the problem, but also to eliminate them so that others can learn from prior errors. Simple broken schedule promises can be just as costly, if not costlier than a serious field problem if they become "surprises" to the purchaser. This presentation will briefly discuss a number of observed consequences (including structural failures) resulting from the most common deviations found to the Codes, Standards, Specifications, and Promises made. These are accumulated from investigations of structural failures, or while providing technical assistance in properly resolving errors occurring in the field during assembly and erection, and/or discovered during 3~(rd) party inspection services monitoring daily fabrication of a Client's order in a fabricator's shop. The goal of the presentation will be to elevate awareness of the potential seriousness and risks when adherence to seemingly minute details of design and fabrication become trivialized, or promises/commitments made are broken.