The steel-framed building derives most of its competitive advantage from the virtues of prefabricated components, which can be assembled speedily at site. Unlike concreting, which is usually a wet process conducted at site, steel is produced and subsequently fabricated within a controlled environment. This ensures high quality, manufacture offsite with improved precision and enhanced speed of construction at site. The efficiency of fabrication and erection in structural steel-work dictates the success of any project involving steel-intensive construction. Current practices of fabrication and erection of steel structures. This inadequate infrastructure for fabrication is unable to support a large growth of steel construction. In India, the fabrication and erection of structural steel-work has been out of the purview of the structural designer. Nevertheless, in the future emerging situation, the entire steel chain, i.e. the producer, client, designer, fabricator and contractor should be able to interact with each other and improve their efficiency and productivity for the success of the project involving structural steel-work. Hence it becomes imperative that structural designers also must acquaint themselves with all the aspects of the structural steel-work including the fabrication and erection.
