How to become Structural Iron and Steel Worker in 2024

Structural Iron and Steel Worker Raise, place, and unite iron or steel girders, columns, and other structural members to form completed structures or structural frameworks. May erect metal storage tanks and assemble prefabricated metal buildings.

Structural Iron and Steel Worker is Also Know as

In different settings, Structural Iron and Steel Worker is titled as

  • Fitter
  • Iron Worker
  • Ironworker
  • Steel Fabricator
  • Steel Worker
  • Structural Steel Erector
  • Tower Hand

Education and Training of Structural Iron and Steel Worker

Structural Iron and Steel Worker is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Structural Iron and Steel Worker

Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.

Education Required for Structural Iron and Steel Worker

These occupations usually require a high school diploma.

Degrees Related to Structural Iron and Steel Worker

Training Required for Structural Iron and Steel Worker

Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Structural Iron and Steel Worker in different industries are

What Do Structural Iron and Steel Worker do?

  • Read specifications or blueprints to determine the locations, quantities, or sizes of materials required.
  • Verify vertical and horizontal alignment of structural steel members, using plumb bobs, laser equipment, transits, or levels.
  • Connect columns, beams, and girders with bolts, following blueprints and instructions from supervisors.
  • Bolt aligned structural steel members in position for permanent riveting, bolting, or welding into place.
  • Ride on girders or other structural steel members to position them, or use rope to guide them into position.
  • Fabricate metal parts, such as steel frames, columns, beams, or girders, according to blueprints or instructions from supervisors.
  • Pull, push, or pry structural steel members into approximate positions for bolting into place.
  • Cut, bend, or weld steel pieces, using metal shears, torches, or welding equipment.
  • Fasten structural steel members to hoist cables, using chains, cables, or rope.
  • Assemble hoisting equipment or rigging, such as cables, pulleys, or hooks, to move heavy equipment or materials.
  • Force structural steel members into final positions, using turnbuckles, crowbars, jacks, or hand tools.
  • Erect metal or precast concrete components for structures, such as buildings, bridges, dams, towers, storage tanks, fences, or highway guard rails.
  • Unload and position prefabricated steel units for hoisting, as needed.
  • Drive drift pins through rivet holes to align rivet holes in structural steel members with corresponding holes in previously placed members.
  • Dismantle structures or equipment.
  • Insert sealing strips, wiring, insulating material, ladders, flanges, gauges, or valves, depending on types of structures being assembled.
  • Catch hot rivets in buckets and insert rivets in holes, using tongs.
  • Place blocks under reinforcing bars used to reinforce floors.
  • Hold rivets while riveters use air hammers to form heads on rivets.
  • Hoist steel beams, girders, or columns into place, using cranes or signaling hoisting equipment operators to lift and position structural steel members.

Qualities of Good Structural Iron and Steel Worker

  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.

Tools Used by Structural Iron and Steel Worker

  • Adjustable widemouth pliers
  • Adjustable wrenches
  • Air compressors
  • Blow torches
  • Bolt cutters
  • Bull pins
  • C clamps
  • Center punches
  • Chalk lines
  • Cold chisels
  • Combination squares
  • Crowbars
  • Cutoff saws
  • Decoilers
  • Drift pins
  • Ear plugs
  • Electric drills
  • Fire extinguishers
  • Flat head screwdrivers
  • Forging dies
  • Grout mixers
  • Hacksaws
  • Hammers
  • Hard hats
  • Hydraulic pumps
  • Jacks
  • Ladders
  • Laser levels
  • Life preservers
  • Notebook computers
  • Open end wrenches
  • Personal computers
  • Phillips head screwdrivers
  • Pipe wrenches
  • Plasma cutters
  • Plumb bobs
  • Pneumatic hammers
  • Portable welding machines
  • Power grinders
  • Power lifts
  • Protective coveralls
  • Protective harnesses
  • Respirators
  • Rivet busters
  • Rivet guns
  • Rivet tongs
  • Robertson screwdrivers
  • Rod ovens
  • Rubber mallets
  • Safety belts
  • Safety boots
  • Safety glasses
  • Safety gloves
  • Safety lanyards
  • Scaffolding
  • Scribers
  • Side cutting pliers
  • Single-cut mill saw files
  • Sledgehammers
  • Slings
  • Socket wrench sets
  • Spreader beams
  • Spud wrenches
  • Squares
  • Staple guns
  • Stressing jacks
  • Strikers
  • Swing stages
  • Tape measures
  • Tin snips
  • Tongs
  • Torpedo levels
  • Tuggers
  • Two way radios
  • Utility knives
  • Vise grip pliers
  • Welding gloves
  • Welding helmets
  • Welding hoods
  • Welding tips
  • Winches
  • Wire brushes
  • Workshop cranes

Technology Skills required for Structural Iron and Steel Worker

  • Computer aided design CAD software
  • Cost estimating software
  • Inventory tracking software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Project scheduling software
  • Turtle Creek Software Goldenseal