A made-to-measure grating panel is sized from the opening it covers — the pit, the trench, the platform bay — not from the worn panel being replaced. We fabricate welded steel grating from 1000 × 1000 mm up to 1500 × 6000 mm. We are not the maker, seller or agent of any third-party grating brand.
Webforge is a registered trademark of Valmont Industries, Inc.
Openings are not rectangular even when they look rectangular. Measure the width at three positions along the length and the length at three positions across the width, and give the fabricator the smallest of each — a panel cut to the average of three measurements fits none of them. Record the bar direction on the sketch while you are there: bearing bars must run perpendicular to the supports or stringers, because the bearing bar is the load path. A panel laid the wrong way round carries a fraction of its rated load and fails inspection without being defective.
How the panel will be held decides its size. A recessed panel sits inside a frame angle and needs clearance on every face; a surface-mounted panel sits on top of the structure and reaches to the frame edge. Our fixing options are M-clip, saddle clip or welded to the stringer, and each takes its grip from a different edge detail. Saying "standard clips" in the enquiry and meaning something else in the pit is how rework orders start.
Pipes, ducts, columns and hatches that pass through the panel become cut-outs, and cut-outs change the quotation more than any other input. Mark the centre and diameter of every penetration on the sketch. Our fabrication cuts any shape — circular, trapezoidal, L, U, free-form — with edges banded in flat bar or angle welded both sides, and holds hole position to ±3 mm. A hole located "about there" on site becomes a fabricated panel that misses by exactly the amount nobody measured.
Your measurements enter the drawing; the drawing returns for your approval; the approved drawing governs fabrication. Panels arrive with outline within ±3 mm and hole position within ±3 mm, and the document set — mill certificates, coating report, packing list, CAD drawings — travels with them. At the 70 micron minimum hot-dip coating (EN ISO 1461, ASTM A123), the zinc adds less than a tenth of a millimetre to outer faces, so the coated panel still fits the opening you measured.
Stock panels in 1000 × 2000 mm and 1200 × 2400 mm move fastest and win when the opening matches. Measure first, then decide: on multi-bay projects the usual answer is stock panels for straight runs and made-to-measure panels for the odd bays, ordered in one shipment so the coating batch matches. A made-to-measure panel costs more than a stock panel and less than a stock panel plus a cutting crew on site.
| Record on the measurement sheet | Why |
|---|---|
| Opening width × length, smallest of three each | Average fits nothing; smallest always fits |
| Bar direction | Bearing bars carry load perpendicular to supports |
| Fixing method | Recessed or surface-mounted changes panel size |
| Penetrations | Centre + diameter of every cut-out |
| Environment | Picks the coating and the material |
Can I send photos instead of measurements? Send both. Photos show the fixing, the penetrations and the access; the millimetre numbers decide the panel. A photo without numbers produces a quotation with assumptions in it.
What tolerance will the panel arrive within? Panel outline and hole position are held to ±3 mm on our fabrication range. Measure the opening to the millimetre and the panel fits as fabricated.
Which way should the bearing bars run? Perpendicular to the supports or stringers. Mark the bar direction on your sketch — it is the single most common correction we make to first drawings.
Send your opening measurements for a made-to-measure quote — smallest-of-three on each axis, bar direction, fixing, penetrations.
Trademark notice: Webforge is a registered trademark of Valmont Industries, Inc. Wuxi Youhui Grid Co., Ltd. is not affiliated with, endorsed by, authorised by or sponsored by Valmont Industries, Inc. References to Webforge appear only to identify the dimensional and material specification a project may call for. All trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.
