Importance of Fabrication Drawings for Stairs and Decorative Railing

by TrueCADD Engineering CAD Outsourcing Company

Staircases are an integral part of the building design for easy maneuvering across building floors and accessibility to heights on the same floor. Stairs, thus, must be made of durable metals like cast iron, steel, and aluminum depending upon the application.

Based on the primary metal used, the fabrication methods for every staircase vary. It needs special attention of the design engineer to specify tolerances, fabrication methods, tools for manufacturing and other details.

So ideally, every shop drawing for stairs is bespoke and needs extensive detailing. It is a time-consuming process. And small errors can magnify into bigger monetary losses. To avoid such situations, fabricators rely upon accurate fabrication drawings for staircases and their accessories such as railings, balustrades, landings, connectors etc.

Detailed fabrication shop drawings for metal using parametric CAD platforms like AutoCAD, SolidWorks or Inventor ensure uninterrupted manufacturing. These CAD software enable seamless design intent communication between teams and across the organizations.

Concerns of metal staircase fabricators

Owing to the bespoke nature of metal fabrication, each staircase fabrication project is different than any of those executed previously. Thus, fabricators cannot replicate any similar shop drawings they have for a new project. So here are some common challenges faced by staircase fabricators.

Coordinating with different structural, architectural and fabrication stakeholders

Varying design requirements of customers

Strict compliance with international and regional standards

Expertise needed to accurately detail the drawings

These concerns daunt the fabricators in their faces. They not only elongate the design cycle but also create hassle on the shop floor. If the designers do not pay attention to the fabrication drawings detailing on time, they result in increased scrap, rising project costs and lost contracts. Staircase fabrication drawings, on the other hand, can help overcome these challenges to ensure faster TAT and keep costs well under control.

How do fabrication drawings for staircases with decorative railings benefit metal fabricators?

Decorative railings, as stated earlier, are accessories to the main staircase body. Both are fabricated separately in the shops and fastened together using connectors on site. Thus, one needs to provide clear instructions to foremen onsite.

Here is a list of features of fabrication drawings that make them indispensable:

1. Comparative information for all stakeholders

Fabrication drawings are essentially all information holders for design intent communication from designers to manufacturers. These drawings serve as a channel between designers, building architects and contractors on the site to help stay on the same page.

Fabrication drawings have complete information regarding design, fabrication, site installation, site welding etc. to keep on the same page. They are essentially developed from the architectural drawings and construction layouts, thus, they have all 360-degree consideration.

2. Provisions to accommodate changes

Since customers have specific requirements for staircase design, shape, look and feel, basic drawings undergo a lot of changes. Further, once the staircases are fabricated and sent to site for installation, there are construction changes that arise due to civil changes that happen on site.

Fabrication shop drawings have provisions to accommodate these in the drawings with red-markups to incorporate modifications from architects or engineers.

3. Adherence to standards and guidelines

Steel stairs have treads with perforations on them to avoid slippage and accidents. Thus steel used to make treads will undergo punching. Likewise, other operations are also carried out before manufacturing the staircases. These operations affect the staircase material.

So as a standard practice, designs should follow DFM and DFMA guidelines to avoid major changes later. SolidWorks CAD platform ensures strict adherence to these guidelines specifically for metals.

Also, to ensure safety, staircases with railings are installed following strict standards such as ASME, ANSI, TEMA etc. They take care that every staircase manufactured meets threshold limits for safety, ergonomics and user ease to avoid accidents. Shop drawings for staircases that meet the form, finish and look and feel are said to have been perfectly manufactured and installed.

4. Easy fabrication, assembly and installation

Detailed fabrication drawings are essentially a set of documents that includes:

Shop drawings for specific metal

BOMs – Bill of Materials

DXF files and NC files

Neutral file formats in IGES or STEP

Assembly and installation guides

Together, this set of documents originating from the designer enables seamless fabrication on the shop floor. The fabricator is empowered to take informed decisions by creating these drawings in AutoCAD or SolidWorks or Inventor as per the need.

Once the shop has finished fabrication work for the staircase assembly and installation guides in manufacturing documents assist the foremen on site. These documents are particularly helpful in ensuring all connector details, site welding, fasteners etc. are accurately placed.

Gearing up for automation: The way forward

2D fabrication drawings for staircases are usually derived from approved 3D comprehensive models of staircases. These models are approved by all stakeholders as well as the customers for design. From I-section to H-section to spiral or straight design, every technical and aesthetical aspect is incorporated in these 3D CAD models.

As bespoke trends rise, when the sales team or the customer makes changes in master 3D models of staircases, design automation updated the model properties. And by leveraging product configurators, fabricators can derive fabrication shop drawings and manufacturing documents automatically.

Design automation essentially reduces the time consumed in developing each detailed fabrication drawing and ensures high quality. But the first step to leveraging design automation is equipping your team with digitized 3D CAD models of staircases.

Conclusion

As bespoke needs for staircases rise the trend to align designer railings with the architectural railings also increases. This has put immense pressure on the fabricators to meet timelines and cost effective deliverables.

On the other hand, detailed fabrication shop drawings take care of everything from design development to final installation and everything in between. They help fabricators deliver cost-optimized solutions by keeping heavy reworks, scrap, drawing errors and elongated timelines at bay.