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Steel for elevator and cableway construction

A lift starts and stops a thousand times a day. A ropeway sends a carrier past the same tower every few seconds, in weather that changes with the altitude. Neither structure is loaded once and then left alone, and both stay under inspection for their whole service life. That moves the question from whether the section carries the load to whether the detail survives the load spectrum.

We supply hollow sections and tubes for shaft structures, station and platform steelwork and the supporting frames around the installation, together with the cutting, laser processing and bending that bring members to the geometry the design calls for.
Aufwärts durch den gläsernen Aufzugsschacht (1)

What these structures ask of a section

Lifts and cableways are regulated installations that run continuously and are inspected for decades. Three requirements decide most material selections.

Load that repeats for the life of the installation

Starts, stops and passing carriers load the same members and the same welded joints again and again, so the verification runs against a load spectrum rather than a single load case. In EN 1993-1-9 every weld detail carries its own detail category, which is why corner geometry and weld preparation matter as much as the section table. Hot finished hollow sections are formed at normalising temperature, which gives a uniform grain structure and hardness across the whole cross section and stable mechanical properties in the corner and weld seam areas.

Toughness at the design temperature

Mountain stations, towers and external shafts work far below the temperatures assumed for an indoor structure. Sub grade selection follows EN 1993-1-10, which starts from a reference temperature and returns a maximum permitted thickness for a given grade, with the degree of cold forming entering the calculation as an adjustment. J2 and K2 qualities are specified at -20 °C, the L qualities of EN 10210-1 at -50 °C.

A surface that is hard to reach again

Towers, shaft frames and station structures are expensive to access once the installation is running, so the corrosion protection is planned to last. A closed section has less area to protect than an open one and no re-entrant corners that hold water or snow. Coating systems follow EN ISO 12944 with the corrosivity category taken from the exposure, and hot dip galvanising follows EN ISO 1461. Hot finished sections carry no work hardening in the corner areas, a known cause of cracking, so they can be welded and galvanised without special precautions.

The range we supply

Hollow sections and tubes in structural and fine grain grades, available in rectangular, square, round, oval and semi-oval profiles. Cold formed sections to EN 10219 suit standard structural applications, while hot finished sections to EN 10210 meet higher demands for load, temperature and wall thickness.

Fine grain grades S355NH, S420NH and S460NH are available alongside J2H qualities. Special grades, including L qualities for impact requirements at -50 °C, and non-standard dimensions can be sourced on request.

Our steel trading products

Hot Formed Hollow Sections

Hot Formed Hollow Sections

Cold Formed Hollow Sections

Cold Formed Hollow Sections

Seamless Tubes

Seamless Tubes

Precision tubes

Precision tubes

Hollow sections to EN 10210 and EN 10219

Square

15 x 15 mm to 500 x 500 mm; EN 10210 hot finished up to 400 x 400 mm with wall thicknesses up to 20 mm, EN 10219 cold formed up to 300 x 300 mm with wall thicknesses up to 12.5 mm

Rectangular

15 x 10 mm to 600 x 400 mm; EN 10210 hot finished up to 500 x 300 mm with wall thicknesses up to 20 mm, EN 10219 cold formed up to 400 x 200 mm with wall thicknesses up to 12.5 mm

Shaped tubes

EN 10219 up to 120/80 and 100/100, wall thicknesses up to 5 mm, length 6,000 mm

Grades

S235JRH, S275J2H, S355J2H, S355NH, S420NH, S460NH, stainless steel and various special grades

Sub grade designations

JR at room temperature, J0 at 0 °C, J2 and K2 at -20 °C, N for normalized fine grain steels, L for specified impact properties at -50 °C

Stock programme

Hot finished in S355J2H and S355NH; cold formed in S235JRH, S275J2H and S355J2H

Manufacturing length, hot finished

12m

Stock range and delivery programme

Stock range and delivery programme vary between markets. Your local ALUKÖNIGSTAHL team will confirm what is available for your project. The programme covers hollow sections, tubes and rolled steel. Bridge equipment such as bearings, expansion joints and drainage is not part of it.

Services we offer

A shaft frame goes up inside an occupied building, a station structure at the end of a mountain road. Access is limited and time on site is expensive, so every operation that happens before delivery is one that does not have to happen on a scaffold.

Bending

Cold bending, hot bending, rolling and press bending through our bending partners. This is the route to curved station roofs, radiused frames, handrail members and enclosure structures that would otherwise be segmented and welded from straight pieces. Send the section, the radius and the tolerance and we will come back on what is feasible for that combination.

3D tube laser cutting

Connection geometries, copes, openings, bolt holes, fixing points and mounting aids are cut into the section in one operation, to the same geometry on every part. That removes steps from your own production, gives optimised weld edges for better weld quality, and adds positioning aids that improve fit accuracy during assembly.

Sawing and cutting to length

Fixed length cuts as well as single and double mitre cuts. Members arrive in the lengths your assembly needs, which simplifies handling on site and avoids costly offcuts in your own workshop.

Sandblasting

Removal of rust, scale, soiling and paint residues, so that the surface is prepared for the coating or galvanising step that follows. The surface preparation grade itself is set by the coating specification and follows EN ISO 12944.

Laser processing envelope

Hollow sections and open sections are processed continuously. The finished part lengths cover shaft uprights and long station members in one piece, without a splice.

Laser work is carried out in line with EN ISO 9001, EN 1090-2 and EN ISO 9013.

The installation itself stays with you. A lift is placed on the market under Directive 2014/33/EU and built to EN 81-20 and EN 81-50; a cableway installation falls under Regulation (EU) 2016/424, with the civil engineering works covered by EN 13107 and the structural calculation by EN 12930. Fabrication of the steel structure follows EN 1090-2 with the execution class set for the project. What we supply is the material and the preparatory operations agreed with it.

Sizing

Enveloping circle diameter up to 610 mm
Hollow sections and oval tubes up to 500 x 300 mm and 400 x 400 mm
Open sections up to 500 x 300 mm
Material thickness, steel up to 22 mm
Finished part length up to 14,000 mm
Weight up to 290 kg/m
File formats STEP, IGES and IFC for 3D model imports, plus DWG, DXF and PDF

For an enquiry, send a STEP file together with a PDF, DWG or DXF drawing. For simple parts a PDF is sufficient. Prefabrication services are available in selected markets.

Questions we are asked regularly

Projects we support

Our product portfolio serves a number of other sectors as well. The same hollow sections, tubes and prefabrication go into projects with quite different requirements, and each sector page sets out what matters there.

PLANT AND STEEL CONSTRUCTION

Columns, trusses and frame structures in plant engineering and structural steelwork.

OPEN

Bridge construction

Load bearing structures with high demands on grade, documentation and traceability.

OPEN

VEHICLE CONSTRUCTION

Chassis and body structures under permanent dynamic and impact loads.

OPEN

MACHINE CONSTRUCTION

Machine frames, special purpose machinery and handling equipment under dynamic load.

OPEN

AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING

Equipment and machinery structures in outdoor use, with a high share of repeat parts.

SHIP BUILDING

Sections for hull and deck structures and for onboard equipment.

OPEN

METAL CONSTRUCTION

Fabrication work from balustrades and canopies through to individual steel structures.

Get in touch with us

Send us a drawing or a model and our steel team will come back with the section, the grade and the prefabrication steps that fit your structure. On request we will assess the potential of 3D laser processing directly at your site.

Request a quoteTalk to the steel team