AUDI DEMONSTRATION HANGARS WELDED WITH PROTEC

Stahlbau Stassfurt

The company „Steel Construction Stassfurt“ built nine of the AUDI demonstration hangars designed by AUDI-Masterplanning. Visible steel construction parts required highest quality standards and advanced surface technology.

The last hangar out of a complete line type A and B was con-structed in autumn 2000 for the car dealer Mulfinger in Heil-bronn, Germany. The trusses are up to 40 m long.

The main part of the steel construction consists of tubes of qual-ity S355JO which are sandblasted before welding. Welding work was with difficult multiple nodes and lack of accessability particularly demanding. A welding wire type EMK6 from Böhler and mixed gas M21 from Linde were used. No welding spatter was allowed on the visible parts of the steel construction and advanced surface technology had to be applied.

For the latest AUDI demonstration hangars Steel construc-tion Stassfurt used METALLOTION PROTEC CE15L, an in-novative, biological anti-spatter fluid. The use of this product lead to significantly reduced construction time. Due to PROTEC CE15Ls outstanding protection welding spatter is wiped-off easily with a glove. No extra cleaning work has to be done.

PROTEC can be overpainted without any problem. As a subsequence no second sandblasting of construction parts is necessary, simple coating with 2K EP paint from Per-matex is sufficient. There is no risk of adhesion issues.

Of particular note is that the same benefits occur in hot dip galvanized construction parts by using METALLOTION. Contrary to ordinary anti-spatter fluids, with PROTEC zinc coating is done without any faults or spots. Conclusion: The use of METALLOTION enables construction of welded steel girders fulfilling high quality standards concerning surface and coating whilst guaranteeing process stability at the same time.

Savings of more than EUR 5.000.- were achieved by an investment of EUR 130.-