How structural steel is fabricated in India
A fabrication shop buys plates, rolled sections and hollow sections from mills or stockists, then cuts them by saw, plasma or flame, drills or punches holes, fits up cleats, stiffeners and end plates, and welds. Most shop welding is semi-automatic gas-shielded or flux-cored arc welding, with submerged arc welding for long seams on built-up girders. Members are straightened, shot blasted and then painted or hot-dip galvanised, either in-house or at a job galvaniser.
Lattice towers are a different trade: angles are cut, punched and marked on CNC lines, galvanised and shipped as bolted kits, with no welding on most members. Gratings are made by resistance-welding cross bars into bearing bars, then banded, cut to size and galvanised. Galvanising and NDT are often subcontracted, so records may come from several sites.
We have not found an official source naming fabrication clusters, so we name no town.
EN 1090, welding procedures and welder records
Structural steel components placed on the EU market as construction products need CE marking under EN 1090-1, with a declaration of performance. The fabricator's factory production control (FPC) must be certified by a notified body. That certificate states the execution class covered, EXC1 to EXC4 as defined in EN 1090-2, and often the welding processes. Clear To Load does not certify fabricators. We review what they hold:
- FPC certificate. Issuer is a notified body listed in the EU NANDO database; the certificate is current; its execution class is at least the one your drawings call for.
- Declaration of performance and CE label for the components shipped, matching the certificate.
- Welding procedure specifications (WPS) for each joint type, backed by procedure qualification records (PQR) to ISO 15614-1, AWS D1.1 or ASME IX as the order requires; thickness, position and process within the qualified range.
- Welder qualifications to ISO 9606-1 or the code named, for the welders actually on your job, in date and covering the process and position.
- Welding coordinator named, where the execution class requires one.
- Material certificates for plates and sections, with heat numbers transferred to cut pieces where the execution class demands traceability. See mill test certificates.
For Great Britain, see UKCA and CE marking. US projects usually specify AWS D1.1 and their own fabricator approvals.
What we check on fabricated steel
| Check | How it is checked | What fails |
|---|---|---|
| Overall dimensions | Length, depth, camber and sweep measured against the shop drawing and the tolerance class ordered | Members short or long; bow beyond tolerance |
| Holes and connections | Hole diameter, pitch, gauge and edge distance measured; end plate flatness and squareness; cleat positions | Holes that will not line up on site; slotted where round was drawn |
| Weld visual inspection | Every accessible weld on sampled members; fillet leg and throat gauged; surface imperfections judged against the ISO 5817 level ordered | Undersize fillets, cracks, undercut, surface porosity, overlap, missing or short welds |
| NDT records | UT, MT or PT reports from the factory's or a third party's certified technicians reviewed for scope, extent and results; tests witnessed where agreed | Extent below the specification; repairs not re-tested |
| Galvanising | Coating thickness by magnetic gauge on reference areas of sampled pieces, compared with ISO 1461 minimums for the steel thickness | Mean or local thickness below minimum; bare spots, ash, drips on contact faces |
| Paint | Surface preparation records; dry film thickness by gauge; adhesion where specified | Low film thickness; paint on faying surfaces meant to be bare |
| Trial assembly | Shop trial assembly witnessed where the order asks for it; match marks and fit checked | Members forced into place; bolts not entering freely |
| Piece marks and kits | Marks against the drawing list; bolt, nut and washer counts per bag | Missing marks; short bolt kits |
Our inspectors do weld visual inspection and dimensional checks. They are not certified NDT technicians or welding inspectors (such as CSWIP or AWS CWI). Where your order needs that sign-off, appoint a certified NDT agency or welding inspector and name it in the order; we can witness their work and include their results in our report.
Gratings and lattice towers
Gratings. The inspector measures bearing bar height and thickness, bar pitch and cross bar pitch against the drawing, and checks that every intersection is welded, that banding is welded at the required spacing and that cut-outs for pipes and columns are banded and in position. Serrated tops are checked where ordered, and galvanising is checked on bar faces and inside cut edges.
Towers. Lattice towers are checked member by member against the bill of materials: angle size and thickness, hole positions and diameters, piece marks stamped before galvanising, and bends made without cracks. Galvanising thickness is critical because towers stand exposed for decades. Where a buyer orders a shop trial assembly of a tower section, we witness it and record fit problems. A full-scale tower type test is a separate test at a test station, arranged by the buyer.
Structural bolts are often supplied by another factory; see fasteners inspection for property class and coating checks.
Common defects in fabricated steel
| Defect | Why it matters | Class |
|---|---|---|
| Crack in or beside a weld | Can grow under load and cause failure | Critical |
| Load-bearing weld missing or much undersize | Connection weaker than the design | Critical |
| EN 1090 certificate absent or below the execution class drawn | Components cannot be lawfully CE marked for that use | Critical |
| Welder or procedure not qualified for the joint | No evidence the weld meets the design properties | Major |
| Hole positions out of tolerance | Site reaming or re-drilling; damaged coating | Major |
| Galvanising below ISO 1461 minimum | Shorter corrosion life | Major |
| Missing piece marks or short bolt kits | Delays and errors on site | Major |
| Weld spatter, minor runs in galvanising, small paint damage | Cosmetic or repairable before shipment | Minor |
Packing, transit and your purchase order
Long members ship on flat racks or in open-top containers; small parts and bolts in crates, bags or drums labelled by assembly. Freshly galvanised steel stacked tightly while damp can develop white storage stain, so bundles need spacers and should be dry when packed. Painted steel needs timber dunnage and padded lashings. The inspector checks bundle labels against the packing list and that heavy items are lashed to the container's securing points. Our loading supervision covers stowage.
Fabricated steel in HS 7308 is a covered good under the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, in its definitive period since 1 January 2026. This affects the importer's reporting and costs, not the inspection; see the steel products hub.
Put these in your purchase order:
- Drawing revision, execution class and tolerance class.
- Steel grades and EN 10204 certificate type; traceability level.
- Welding code, ISO 5817 quality level, NDT methods and extent.
- Galvanising to ISO 1461 or a paint system with film thickness.
- Trial assembly requirements and the witness points you want.
- Piece marking, bolt kits, bundling and loading plan.
Book an inspection anywhere in India.
Sources
- CEN/TR 17052:2017, Guidelines on implementing EN 1090-1:2009+A1:2011 (Estonian Centre for Standardisation)
- ISO 5817:2023 Welding: fusion-welded joints, quality levels for imperfections
- ISO 1461:2022 Hot dip galvanized coatings on fabricated iron and steel articles
- European Commission: NANDO database of notified bodies
- Regulation (EU) 2023/956, carbon border adjustment mechanism, Annex I (EUR-Lex)