Learning from the Shop: How SSE Engineers Deliver Fabricator-Friendly Designs

I had no experience with steel before SSE. I immediately got experience by going out to the shop and field. Recently, we went on a shop tour at uh Division 5. We saw the steel in the shop, being able to see the connections that I had in 2D, seeing them in 3D. It was pretty cool seeing something in real life, not just on paper on a screen. It's important to visit a shop when you're a young engineer for a lot of reasons. Welding, actually doing it, and like knowing how it's done. Also, every time you go to a shop, you are made more aware of like fabricator preferences, what type of connections they prefer. When you're in the office, I mean, you try to communicate them and get to know what they would prefer. But, I mean, feel like something always comes up in the shop that you learn and you can improve on your designs. For engineering, a CJP weld is just utilizing the full strength of the member. And that corresponds to a fab shop. It's like I have to do so many passes of this weld to completely penetrate the member. and that takes a lot of time. So, if we're able to get like a fillet weld to work in place of a CJP, then that's cost beneficial for the fabricator. Also, like going to the shop, you you realize like how welds act. Like if you have a really big weld on one side of a plate, it's going to like want to pull it to the side. Um, so you just have to just think about how everything fits up together. I mean, you have to think about the accessibility to make the welds. Also, you have to think about like what type of welds the fabricator would prefer. Complex welds like CJP or PJP welds will cost more and they don't want to have to do that. If you can get a fillet weld to work, like extend the weld length if possible to make the weld smaller. If you have exposure to that, you can see what the problem is and fix it beforehand so that way there's no problems in the future. You really need to keep that in mind when you design to really relate it back to what they're dealing with.

Who We Are
So we're Southern Steel Engineers based out of Lexington, South Carolina. We were founded in 2017. We're a structural engineering firm and we focus on steel design and construction. Steel design isn't just part of what we do, it is what we do and we're passionate about it. Our team of engineers have built their careers around steel design and steel construction. I have a background in steel detailing and myself and our senior engineers have backgrounds working directly at major steel fabricators. So we understand what our clients need and how to help make their projects a success.

How We Work
We understand how critical schedules are in our industry. We know that steel needs to get into the shop and on site on time and we do our part to make that happen. We work hard to provide sketches that are easy for the detailers to follow and we're focused on providing efficient designs that are going to reduce time and cost for the fabricator. We think through the constructability of our designs to help avoid field issues before they happen. All of this is so that things flow smoothly for the erector in the field. This goes for not just one but all the services we provide.

Our Clients and Services
Our primary clients include steel fabricators, steel detailers, and steel erectors. Because we're trying to serve their needs our primary services include steel connection design, steel shop drawing review, and miscellaneous steel design. We also have the capabilities to provide structural building design, erection engineering, and miscellaneous structural design for things like catwalks and platforms. To help out our clients with projects no matter where they're at, we're licensed in 46 States and have a team of PEs and EITs on staff. I'm also a licensed SE and CWI to better help tackle challenges on projects. At SSE since the very beginning one of our goals was to form a trusting relationship with our clients and be able to serve as an integral part of their project teams. Our team is highly qualified and steadily growing, so if you' got a steel project that needs engineering, reach out we're happy to help.

Overview of SSE & What We’re All About
Hey I'm Tyler. Welcome to SSE. So we're Southern Steel Engineers based out of Lexington, South Carolina. We were founded in 2017. We're a structural engineering firm and we focus on steel design and construction. Steel design isn't just part of what we do, it is what we do and we're passionate about it. Our team of Engineers have built their careers around steel design and steel construction. I have a background in steel detailing and myself and our senior engineers have backgrounds working directly at major steel fabricators so we understand what our clients need and how to help make their projects a success. To tell you a little bit more about our design approach I'm going to pass it over to Kris. We understand how critical schedules are in our industry. We know that steel needs to get into the shop and on site on time and we do our part to make that happen. We work hard to provide sketches that are easy for the detailers to follow and we're focused on providing efficient designs that are going to reduce time and cost for the fabricator. We think through the constructability of our designs to help avoid field issues before they happen all of this is so that things flow smoothly for the erector in the field. This goes for not just one but all the services we provide. Our primary clients include steel fabricators, steel detailers, and steel erectors. Because we're trying to serve their needs our primary services include steel connection design, steel shop drawing review, and miscellaneous steel design. We also have the capabilities to provide structural building design, erection engineering, and miscellaneous structural design for things like catwalks and platforms. To help out our clients with projects no matter where they're at we're licensed in 46 States and have a team of PEs and EITs on staff. I'm also a licensed SE and CWI to better help tackle challenges on projects. At SSE since the very beginning one of our goals was to form a trusting relationship with our clients and be able to serve as an integral part of their project teams. Our team is highly qualified and steadily growing so if you got a steel project that needs engineering reach out we're happy to help.

Across more than 1,500 completed projects and over 50 fabricators nationwide, we've designed connections for nearly every kind of steel work a shop runs into, from heavy industrial, high-seismic hospitals, data centers, aerospace, and schools, on projects anywhere from a few tons up to 40,000 tons, whether complex or straightforward. Every project sharpens the way we approach the next, which is why our processes are built around what fabricators actually need.

Steel engineering is all we do. We've built our team and our processes around doing it well, and that focus is what lets us turn projects fast, stay sharp on the standards, and deliver details that actually fabricate and erect the way they're drawn. We aren't a general structural firm that takes connection work on the side. Every engineer here has built their career around steel, and our principals came up through fabrication shops before they started stamping drawings. That perspective shapes how the whole team works, from how we read a set of contract documents to how we mark up a shop drawing.

Connection design is the core of what we do, but it's only part of the picture. We handle the full delegated steel engineering scope, and we're licensed in 46 states with more than 1,500 projects behind us. Whatever the project type, we've probably engineered something like it before, and we bring that experience to every new job.

What we hear most from the fabricators we work with is that we feel less like an outside consultant and more like part of their team. From the first kickoff call through AISC shop audits, detailer coordination, and field fixes, we're set up to support whatever a fabricator needs from their delegated steel engineer. The goal is for working with SSE to feel like having an in-house engineering department, one that already speaks your language and is invested in keeping your project moving.