We talked about concrete last week. This week, we will talk about steel.

Let's say you need a platform up in the air.  It could be for a piece of equipment, or for personnel access.  Either way, at a certain height from your conventional operating level, you need a platform.

Conventionally, you will probably build a structure from steel structural shapes.  

Let's rethink this.

That structural platform requires a number of field bolted joints.  It is a structure that will be a dirt catcher.  

Building a structure with a single large pipe leg makes more sense.  It will be easier to erect and easier to keep clean.

Think this is not possible?  Look along any major highway at the structures for modern billboards.  They are made of pipe, rising a hundred or more feet in the air, with a large wind catcher (the billboard) at the top.  You are not building any small platform twenty feet in the air that has to stand up to conditions as severe as that of the billboard.

We will be announcing our 2014 LGMI Conference details soon.  We have chosen a great location.  You may want to come and share your wisdom or absorb the wisdoms of others.  Watch for details.