Angle irons are all around you, though you may not know it.
If you’re sitting in a room surrounded by furniture, it’s more than likely some of the pieces feature angle irons. If you walk down the street past some buildings, you’re close to angle irons in those moments as well.
You may also need to select an angle iron or several of them if you are getting involved in a building project. How can you choose the right ones, though?
We’ll discuss that in the following article.
What Exactly is an Angle Iron?
To put it as simply as possible, an angle iron is a piece of metal shaped to look like the capital letter L. Because of its unique shape, it is inherently stable.
It can be used in many situations. You can put angle irons at the base of buildings and stack weight on top of them, or you might also use them in pieces of furniture like bookcases, shelves, couches, and so forth.
What Kinds of Angle Irons Are There?
You can get various types of angle irons, depending on the kind of project in which you’re engaging. For instance, you can get galvanized steel or a cold-rolled steel angle iron. You can get a hot-rolled one instead.
You can get ones with different tensile strengths as well. Likewise, you can purchase ones that are either steel or metal alloys.
How Can You Tell Which Kind You Need?
To figure out which kinds of angle irons you need, there is a formula you can use that should help a great deal. When you select a steel angle bar, you should calculate the height, length, and width that you need. You can do that by multiplying those three numbers by an iron density of 0.259.
Then, you can take the dimensions of the taller portion of an angle iron’s length. You’ll then multiply the height times the length times the width. You will then multiply these results by 0.259.
Adding these two totals will give you the angle bar’s total weight. Once you have an angle iron’s weight, you will know how much it can support.
Why Does This Math Matter?
If you know that you need an angle iron, or multiple angle irons, in a project, figuring out how much weight it can support is crucial.
After all, if you insert an angle iron at the base of a building, for instance, and then you put too much weight on top of it, you risk the structure collapsing.
However, while the amount of weight that an angle iron can support matters, you also need to think about getting one that has the proper tensile strength, yield strength, and the correct modulus of elasticity. For that, experience comes into play. If you’re not sure about what kind of angle iron you need for a project, it’s best to consult an expert. Anyone who knows about the capabilities of industrial metal parts can be an invaluable resource.
