Structural steel plays a defining role in modern infrastructure—from high-rise buildings and long-span bridges to transmission towers and industrial facilities. As the backbone of these structures, section steel is valued for its strength, speed of construction, lightweight characteristics, sustainability, and design flexibility.
However, behind these advantages lies a persistent challenge: section steel fabrication has long struggled with accuracy control, production efficiency, and process flexibility. These constraints have become increasingly evident as the steel construction industry moves toward higher quality standards and smarter manufacturing models.
To address these issues, Han’s Laser has developed a full-process section steel manufacturing solution that integrates laser cutting, heavy-duty bending, and advanced welding technologies into a unified, production-ready system—providing a clear path for the intelligent upgrade of steel structure fabrication.
Core Challenges in Section Steel Processing
Section steel encompasses a wide variety of profiles, including H-beams, I-beams, channels, angles, and flat bars. Traditional processing methods face multiple limitations:
- Irregular positioning and clamping of long profiles
- Welding deformation leading to dimensional deviation
- Inconsistent cutting accuracy due to secondary positioning
- Limited capability for variable cross-sections, unequal thicknesses, and tapered profiles
- Inefficiency when handling complex operations such as end cutting, beveling, and weld-seam preparation
These factors not only reduce throughput but also introduce cumulative errors that affect assembly accuracy and long-term structural reliability. Overcoming these bottlenecks is essential for achieving high-quality, high-efficiency steel fabrication.
Laser Cutting: The Foundation of Accuracy and Throughput
1.Laser Cutting for Section Steel Profiles
In conventional steel structure production, profile processing often relies on manual marking, drilling, cutting, and multiple machines—resulting in long cycle times and inconsistent quality.
Modern laser profile cutting systems consolidate these operations into a single, highly automated platform capable of processing H-beams, I-beams, angles, and channels, while also supporting flat plate cutting when required. Drilling, contour cutting, beveling, slotting, marking, and layout lines can be completed in one setup, eliminating inter-process handling and repeated positioning.
Advanced CNC control systems with integrated process databases allow direct data exchange with mainstream steel structure design software. Fabrication data can be generated directly from 3D models, removing intermediate CAD conversions and manual programming. Intelligent nesting software further optimizes material usage and enables efficient reuse of remnants.
Dedicated profile cutting heads ensure clean root cutting, high-quality cross sections, and single-pass completion of complex features—significantly improving dimensional accuracy and consistency.
2.Heavy-Duty Laser Tube and Profile Cutting
For extra-long and heavy profiles commonly used in communication towers and transmission structures, heavy-load laser tube cutting machines provide stable, high-precision processing.
Four-chuck clamping designs ensure synchronized loading and unloading while enabling blind-spot-free cutting at any profile end. Specialized discharge mechanisms allow angle steel to be rotated and stacked at arbitrary orientations after cutting, simplifying downstream sorting and logistics.
With integrated bevel cutting heads, straight cuts and 0–45° bevels can be completed in one pass—meeting the demanding efficiency and quality requirements of large-scale tower fabrication.
3.Large-Format Plate Cutting for Structural Components
Connection plates and node plates are critical elements in steel structures. Large-format, high-power laser cutting machines deliver smooth cut edges, high dimensional accuracy, and one-step cutting and hole processing—eliminating secondary grinding.
Compared with flame or plasma cutting, laser cutting minimizes heat-affected zones, reduces kerf width, and significantly improves accuracy, providing a more reliable foundation for structural safety and long-term performance.
Heavy-Duty Bending: Building Stronger Structural Components
Bending plays a vital role in steel structures, particularly for load-bearing and connection components where precision is critical. For medium-to-thick plates, traditional processing often struggles with low efficiency, high labor intensity, and cost control.
Replacing groove welding with bending processes improves structural stiffness and strength without compromising the mechanical properties of the steel.
Heavy-duty press brakes designed for steel construction feature high-rigidity frames optimized through finite element analysis and reinforced ram structures to ensure long-term stability under continuous high loads. Extended daylight openings and stroke lengths enable the processing of large, high-strength plates.
Integrated hydraulic systems deliver stable pressure output while reducing energy consumption and improving system durability. Mechanical crowning tables with bidirectional adjustment effectively compensate for deflection, ensuring consistent bend angles and straightness along the full length. Rigid backgauge systems maintain dimensional accuracy even under impact loads.
With capacities ranging from 500 to 1200 tons and support for plates up to 30 mm thick, these systems provide reliable forming capability for large-scale steel structure projects.
Advanced Welding: Redefining Section Steel Assembly
1.Laser–Arc Hybrid Welding
In large structural assemblies, welding quality directly affects safety, design freedom, and economic efficiency. Laser–arc hybrid welding combines the advantages of laser and arc heat sources, achieving high welding speed while significantly improving weld quality.
Even for thick plates, high-quality welds can be achieved without groove preparation. The resulting welds feature narrower seams, lower reinforcement, and deeper penetration, enabling true single-side welding with double-side formation.
Hybrid welding systems are widely applied in construction steel structures, rail transportation, and shipbuilding, supporting high-efficiency welding of T-beams, channels, curved panels, decks, and bulkheads.
2.Intelligent Teach-Free Arc Welding Robots
Teach-free intelligent arc welding robots integrate advanced welding control with 3D laser seam tracking. The system automatically detects seam position, geometry, and size, generating welding paths and torch orientation without manual teaching.
Supporting multi-pass, multi-layer, fillet, and continuous welds, the system adapts to workpiece deformation and varying joint conditions. With long reach and high repeatability, it is well suited for large box beams, bridge frameworks, and multi-station continuous welding tasks.
Applications include H-beam butt joints, corbels, purlin brackets, bridge plates, spatial trusses, and tower base structures—making the solution particularly effective for small-batch, high-mix steel construction projects.
A Complete Manufacturing System for Intelligent Steel Fabrication
By integrating precision laser cutting, heavy-duty bending, and intelligent welding, this full-process section steel solution forms a cohesive and production-ready manufacturing system. Through stable equipment platforms, deeply integrated software, and continuously optimized processes, it enables manufacturers to overcome long-standing fabrication bottlenecks and achieve measurable gains in efficiency, accuracy, and overall project quality.
As “laser-based” and “intelligent” technologies continue to converge, this integrated approach is setting the foundation for a more efficient, flexible, and high-quality future in steel structure manufacturing.
