Cares specifies new guide for standards
01 April 2004
For many specifiers and users, reinforcing steel is a commodity product, largely taken for granted.
The most significant attribute is often the price, rather than any particular performance characteristic, says a spokesman for Cares, a UK-based independent, non-profit-making certification body.
In the Gulf region, reinforcing steels are frequently ordered to British Standards. Most designers specify reinforcing steels using a bar or fabric schedule, with little knowledge about the product being ordered, how it is made, inspected, tested, or what characteristics it may have, and how these may influence fabrication, site operations and structural performance, the spokesman says.
In order to help clarify this situation, Cares has produced a series of 10 articles, which together comprise the Cares Guide to Reinforcing Steels. These include;
- The product certification scheme for steel for the reinforcement of concrete;
- Manufacturing process routes for reinforcing steels;
- Properties of reinforcing steels;
- Fabrication of steel reinforcement;
- Welded reinforcement fabric;
- Pre-assembled welded reinforcement fabrications;
- Stainless reinforcing steels;
- Ancillary products for the reinforcement of concrete;
- Electronic labelling and transfer of data; and
- Reinforcement product standards and design codes.
These articles, using the British Standards as a base, provide an overview of the reinforcing steel industry for clients, designers, engineers and contractors. The guide is being distributed by Cares in the Journals of the UK Institution of Structural Engineers (The Structural Engineer) and the UK Concrete Society (Concrete). Part 1 of the guide concentrates on the Cares scheme and describes how it works, and the benefits it brings to clients, specifiers and contractors.
The guide is also available from Cares in pdf format, which can be obtained by emailing benbowsher@ukcares.com.
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