Guides, calculators and comparisons

Practical tools for the buyer: how much a sheet weighs, how many tons fit in a container, how many panels a roof needs, what a beam carries, and which product to choose when two look alike.

Guides

Bundle quantities and container loadingPieces per bundle and per ton, containers per order, loading and lashing practice.Channel (UPN) load capacityUDL capacity of UPN 50–300 single and paired, spans 1–6 m, S235JR.Floor plate load capacityUDL and point-load capacity of 3–12 mm floor plate on supports 0.5–1.5 m apart.H beam and IPE load capacityUDL and column capacity for HEA/HEB 100–400 and IPE 100–500, spans 3–12 m.Hollow section load capacityBeam and column capacity of SHS/RHS 40×40 to 200×200, S235 and S355, spans 1–6 m.

Product comparisons

Cold-rolled vs galvanized sheetDC01 or DX51D: corrosion, paint, price and forming compared.ERW vs seamless pipeManufacture, pressure limits, price gap and which spec calls for which.Hardox vs AR500 wear plateBrand vs generic wear plate: same hardness class, different guarantees — and 15–30 % price difference.HEA vs HEB beamsLight vs standard H series: weight, capacity and price size by size.

Need to calculate a weight, a panel quantity or a container count? The calculators do the arithmetic.

Steel grades

Chemistry, mechanical properties and equivalents of every grade we supply (S235JR, S355J2, DX51D, 304, 316, P265GH …) are documented on our reference site steelstandart.com.

What these guides are for

Every guide on this site answers a question that comes up between the specification and the order — the arithmetic a buyer or a site engineer has to do before a quotation means anything.

How much load a section carries over a span. How many bars fit in a container and what the bundle weighs. Which Incoterm moves the risk where. What a plate actually weighs once the tolerance is applied.

They are written from the same published data as the product pages, so a figure in a guide and a figure in a size table cannot disagree. Where a guide simplifies — and load tables always do — it says what it assumed.

Load tables are indicative, and here is why

A span table on this site, or anywhere else, is a starting point rather than a design. It assumes a support condition, a load distribution, a deflection limit and a grade, and changing any of them changes the answer.

The deflection limit does most of the work. A beam sized for L/200 is a different beam from one sized for L/360, and the second is the one a plasterboard ceiling or a glazed facade needs. Lateral-torsional buckling is not in a simple table at all, and on a long unrestrained span it, not bending, is what governs.

Use the tables to get to the right two or three sections. Have the engineer choose between them.

Container and bundle arithmetic

Two constraints decide a steel shipment and they rarely bind at the same time. A 20-foot container is weight-limited — around 25 tonnes of payload — and a 40-foot high cube is volume-limited, because 28 tonnes of thin coil fills it long before the weight is reached.

That is why heavy plate and sections ship in 20-foot boxes and light profiles, roofing sheet and panel ship in 40-foot ones. A 12-metre bar does not fit either and travels on a flat rack or by truck.

The guides work the numbers through with real bundle weights, so the container count on an offer can be checked rather than trusted.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use the load tables for a structural design?

Not on their own. They are indicative figures for a stated support condition, load pattern and deflection limit, and they exclude lateral-torsional buckling and connection design. Use them to narrow the choice; have a structural engineer make it.

How many tonnes fit in a container?

A 20-foot container takes roughly 25 tonnes of payload and is usually weight-limited; a 40-foot high cube is volume-limited and fills at 22–28 tonnes depending on the product. Light profiles and roofing sheet fill a 40-foot box long before the weight limit.

What length of steel can be shipped in a container?

Up to about 5.9 m in a 20-foot box and 12.0 m in a 40-foot one, with practical loading lengths slightly under those. Longer material travels on flat racks or by truck.

Which deflection limit should I use?

L/200 is the usual limit for a roof purlin, L/250 for a floor beam without brittle finishes and L/360 where plasterboard, glazing or a stiff facade is carried. The limit, not the strength, governs most section choices in practice.

Do the guides use the same data as the product pages?

Yes. Both are generated from the same published dimension and mass tables, so a figure cannot differ between a guide and the size table it came from.