Platforms and access steel
Walkways, stairs, handrails, maintenance platforms.
Parametric model of a typical piece. Your structure is built to your drawing, not to this shape.
What it is
The steel people stand on around a machine: maintenance platforms, walkways along conveyors, stair flights, ladders, handrails and kick plates. Built to the customer's drawing to EN 1090-2, execution class EXC2, from section and plate with grating or chequer plate decks.
Access steel is mostly repetitive, and repetition is where a welding jig and a robotic cell earn their keep. Handrail panels and stair stringers are made in batches to one procedure.
Typical pieces
- Maintenance platforms with grating decks and kick plates
- Walkways and crossovers along conveyor lines
- Stair flights, stringers and landings
- Handrail panels, posts and ladders with cages
- Support frames and brackets for platform legs
Typical applications
The steel people stand on and hold onto, around a machine that was never designed with them in mind.
- Maintenance platforms around a drive, a screen or a gearbox
- Walkways and crossovers along a conveyor line
- Stair flights, stringers and landings between plant levels
- Ladders with cages and their wall or column brackets
- Handrail panels, posts and kick plates in repeating bays
- Support frames and outriggers that carry a platform off a machine frame
What we make
Access steel is repetitive, and repetition is where a jig and a robotic cell pay for themselves.
- Handrail panels and stair stringers made in batches to one jig and one procedure
- Grating and chequer plate decks cut to the opening, with fixings to the deck maker's system
- Stringer notching and tread positions cut on the laser from the drawing
- Bolted rather than welded site joints wherever the drawing allows, so a bay can be replaced
- Detailed for hot-dip galvanising as the default outdoor finish
Measured across the 12 pieces of this group in the gallery below: 1.1 to 18.9 m in the longest dimension, and most of them between 3.5 and 6 m. The tallest is 6 m and the widest 5.6 m.
Those figures are measured from the pieces in the gallery on this page, not a capacity limit. What the machines take is on the capability pages, and anything outside that is agreed per enquiry.
Mass is not published here. It follows the plate thicknesses the drawing sets, and we do not estimate it from a model. Send the drawing and the mass comes back with the quotation.
What we can make
Platform modules are sized for road transport as a matter of course. Decking and handrails are supplied loose or fitted.
| Item | Machine | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Laser bed | TRUMPF TruLaser 3040 | 2 000 x 4 000 mm |
| Press brake table length | DURMA AD-S 60400 | 6 050 mm |
| Structural steel, certified thickness (ISO/TR 15608 group 1) | EN ISO 3834-2 scope | up to 40 mm |
| Weld quality level (EN ISO 5817) | EN 1090-2, EN ISO 5817 | level C at EXC2 |
| Welding process | Manual and robotic | MAG 135 |
| Blasting chamber | Compressed-air blasting chamber | 8 000 x 5 000 x 3 000 mm |
| Spray and curing booth | Polin AC spray and curing booth | 7 900 x 5 000 x 4 890 mm |
Finish
Hot-dip galvanised on request, the usual finish for access steel outdoors. Wet-painted in house where the plant standard asks for a colour.
- Raw steel, as welded · Default finish
- Hot-dip galvanised
- Wet paint, primer and top coat
Materials
S235 for handrail, posts and kick plate, S355 where a stringer or an outrigger carries load. Grating and chequer plate are bought in to the drawing's specification and are quoted as supplied material, with the maker's certificate passed through.
- S235 and S355 structural steel, ISO/TR 15608 group 1, welded up to 40 mm under the certificate
- Austenitic stainless steel, ISO/TR 15608 group 8, welded 3 to 16 mm
- Plate, hollow section, angle, channel and flat bar, cut and formed in house
- Material certificates to EN 10204 3.1 when the order asks for them
- Aluminium is outside the certified welding scope and is not offered
Welding
Access steel is welded to EN 1090-2, execution class EXC2, at weld quality level C to EN ISO 5817, and that is the honest ceiling: this site does not claim an EN 1090-1 declaration of performance, so a structure needing CE marked components as a construction product needs that established first.
- MAG 135, manual and robotic; the robotic stations run on a 14 m track
- Welding quality system certified to EN ISO 3834-2, certificate W348721, PQM s.r.o.
- Execution class EXC2 to EN 1090-2 unless the drawing calls for more
- Weld quality level C to EN ISO 5817, the level EN 1090-2 assigns to EXC2
- Procedures to EN ISO 15609-1, qualified to EN ISO 15614-1, welders to EN ISO 9606-1
- Welding coordination by an International Welding Engineer
Surface treatment
Hot-dip galvanising is the usual finish for access steel outdoors, and it is done through a partner rather than in this hall. Where a plant standard asks for a colour instead, the same steel is blasted to Sa 2½ and wet painted in the Polin booth.
- As welded, deslagged and cleaned, where the drawing asks for nothing more
- Blasting to EN ISO 8501-1 Sa 2½ in the compressed-air chamber, 8 000 x 5 000 x 3 000 mm
- Wet paint in the Polin booth, 7 900 x 5 000 x 4 890 mm, cured at 75 to 80 °C
- Primer and top coat to the system the drawing specifies
- Hot-dip galvanising on request, through a partner; there is no bath in this hall
- Powder coating is not offered
Inspection and documentation
Platform steel is checked for the things that hurt on site: bay lengths, post pitch, deck opening sizes and the diagonals of a landing. Handrail heights and infill spacing are built to the drawing; the design standard behind those figures is the customer's to state, and it is quoted as drawn.
- Visual testing of every weld to EN ISO 17637, assessed against EN ISO 5817
- Dimensional inspection to EN ISO 13920; the tolerance class is agreed on the drawing
- Measurement with a FARO Arm Prime 10 where the drawing needs a report
- Welding procedure specifications and their qualification records with the delivery
- Welder qualifications to EN ISO 9606-1
- Ultrasonic, magnetic particle and penetrant testing on request
- Coating thickness reports on request
What does not ship is an EN 1090-1 declaration of performance. TANAX TRUCKS a. s. publishes no EN 1090-1 factory production control certificate, so this site does not claim one; EN 1090-2 is the execution standard the welding system works to.
What we need from you
Access steel is quoted from the general arrangement plus the bay details. Send:
- The drawing, as PDF, and as STEP, DXF or DWG where you have it
- The material specification, grade by grade
- The weld quality level or the execution class, if the drawing does not carry it
- The finish: as welded, blasted, primed, painted to a system, or galvanised
- The quantity, and whether it is a one-off, a batch or a repeat call-off
- The date you need it on site, and the delivery address
A drawing is enough to quote from. Nothing here needs a specification written first.
The route through the hall
- 01
CNC laser cutting
Plate to 20 mm on a 2 000 x 4 000 mm bed, 3 200 W. Nests are cut from the customer's DXF or from our own unfolds.
- 02
CNC bending
400 t press brake with a 6 050 mm table and 365 mm stroke. Long folds in one hit; cones and boxes for hoppers and housings.
- 03
Welding
MAG 135, manual and robotic. A dual robotic station on a 14 m track and a second robotic cell with 2 008 mm reach, under an EN ISO 3834-2 system with an IWE welding coordinator.
- 04
Blasting and painting
An 8 000 x 5 000 x 3 000 mm compressed-air blasting chamber on rails into a 7 900 x 5 000 x 4 890 mm spray and curing booth, wet paint cured at 75 to 80 °C.
- 05
Inspection
Visual weld inspection under the welding coordinator and dimensional measurement with a six-axis FARO Arm Prime 10.
- 06
Assembly
Sub-assemblies, components and complete units assembled and fitted before dispatch.
From the shop
From the shop
Structures that have left this hall, shown as anonymous models: the geometry we welded, its real overall size, and nothing that identifies whose drawing it was.
12 models
Each model is rendered from the production geometry in raw steel, without paint, and is shown as a still. Customer names, machine designations and drawing numbers are not published; part lists and files are not offered. The interactive model above this section is a parametric example, not one of these.
Where this fits
Access steel is cut, formed, welded and galvanised or painted, and it goes to material handling, storage and modular building projects.
Questions we are asked before a first order
- What steel do you weld?
- The certified welding scope is ISO/TR 15608 group 1, unalloyed and fine-grain structural steels up to 40 mm, and group 8, austenitic stainless from 3.0 to 16.0 mm. S235 and S355 are the grades we work most and both sit in group 1. Aluminium is outside the certified scope and is not offered.
- To what weld quality do you work?
- Execution class EXC2 to EN 1090-2, which assigns weld quality level C to EN ISO 5817, under our certified EN ISO 3834-2 welding quality system. Welding is MAG 135, manual and robotic. If your drawing calls for level B, say so on the drawing and we will price it.
- Can you paint or galvanise it?
- Wet paint, in our own line: a blasting chamber rail-connected to a spray and curing booth, so a piece is blasted and painted without leaving the building. Powder coating is not offered. Galvanising is on request.
- What do you need from me to quote?
- The drawing, as STEP, DWG, DXF, PDF or ZIP; the material specification; the weld quality class if it is not the standard one; the finish; the quantity or the series size; and the date you need it. A 2D drawing is enough to start.
- How big a piece can you take?
- The published machine figures are in the envelope table on this page and in full on the capabilities page: the laser bed, the press brake, the boring mill travels, the blasting and paint booths. Crane capacity, maximum weldment size and mass, and transport limits are not published by the parent company and are confirmed per enquiry rather than estimated here.
- Do you build to an access standard, or to my drawing?
- To your drawing. We fabricate to the drawing and the standards it references, under EXC2 to EN 1090-2, and we do not hold a catalogue of standard platforms or certify a design against an access standard we were not assessed for. If your platform has to meet one, put the requirement on the drawing and we build to it.
Anything not answered here is answered on the enquiry, not estimated on this page.
Start here
Send the drawing. We answer with a price and a date.
STEP, DWG, DXF, PDF or ZIP, up to five files. Your drawings stay private: they are stored outside the web server and read only by our engineers.