NG Bailey developed the bespoke tool to address safety issues around the structural design of supports and fixings, which it says are often overlooked.
Development of the bracket utility was progressed by the company’s design and BIM development manager Paul Marsland following a review of current bracket design practices, which revealed that despite the need to improve current methods of calculation, there were no commercially available tools on the market.
Technical director Steve Campbell said: “Until now, the structural design aspect of support and fixings has often been overlooked by the industry, resulting in potentially unsafe and often costly situations. The bracket utility was designed as a direct response to this and not only addresses safety concerns, but has cost and time-saving benefits for engineers.”
He added: “The tool marks a shift-change in the approach to structural supports and we are really pleased with the positive response from our suppliers and consultants. It is now used as standard on all of our projects, ensuring consistency across our processes.”
The tool includes full structural analysis of a bracket and accurately calculates steelwork deflection and the load share between supports in real time. Users can also add M&E services to each tier of the bracket. The bracket utility then produces a report that includes dimensional images and a bill of quantities. This means that a bracket can be manufactured directly from the application output.
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