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ith so many projects underway and planned, this article highlights some recent ACRS advice to builders enquiring about attempts to circumvent specification requirements for ACRS certification of steel supply, including incidences of misuse of ACRS certificates. MANAGING YOUR RISKS OF RECEIVING NONCOMPLIANT STEEL. Do you know whether or not the steel supplied is compliant with Standards and your specification requirements? With ACRS 2 Stage certification it’s automatic. ACRS was set up by Austroads and other peak industry bodies in 2000 as a steel certification scheme independent of steel suppliers to manage this problem. The ACRS scheme is JAS-ANZ accredited, including, since January 2018, to AS/NZS 5131 – Structural Steelwork. ACRS certifies over 70% of the steel manufactured in or imported into Australia to AS/ NZS Standards. However recent reports from builders suggest non-equivalent alternative solutions are being accepted, often due a lack of awareness by builders’ staff of ACRS Stage 2 certification, or due to worries regarding: • not enough suppliers of ACRS certified materials “available” at the time of purchase (and the Builder ending up with plenty of suppliers, but no guarantee of quality); • Too short lead times claimed for sourcing and verifying compliant supply (not true as the specification exists before the supply contract is tendered and supplier accepted); • Supply of steel to projects allowing test certificates instead of ACRS, or with alternative product
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certification presented to builders as “equivalent” to ACRS - then subsequently found to be nonconforming (often despite clear instruction in the contract or specification as to what is acceptable); Steel suppliers lobbying builders to amend specifications to accept alternative schemes to ACRS with claims these provide “equivalent” technical rigour and scope of assessment to ACRS (fine where this is proved to be the case in advance of acceptance. However, this is leaving the builders facing risk by accepting the use of nonconforming processed and fabricated steels on projects when it turns out the “equivalent” scheme is actually not “ACRS equivalent”. And so far, none are).
ACRS 2020 CERTIFICATES AMENDED FOR ADDITIONAL CLARITY AND AVOIDANCE OF MISUSE ACRS 2020 certificates have some important changes to protect builders, engineers, and steel purchasers Focus continues to intensify on nonconforming building materials, and more examples of nonconforming steel are identified on major projects. ACRS is receiving significantly more enquiries from specifiers and consumers, including builders, asking which certificates can be relied upon, and how do builders’ staff and contractors know what to look for? Regrettably, this is too often after using an alternative to ACRS - only to find later that the alternative has not performed to expectation. In the most common instances reported to ACRS, the alternative rebar processor, or welded section
supplier may have assured the builder that all the steel comes from ACRS certified mills (Stage 1), but upon checking, the builder finds that some or all of the steel was from non-ACRS approved sources. Plus, the subsequent processing or welded fabrication of the steel may also not have met Standards, as the alternative did not verify as ACRS Stage 2 certification does. ACRS not only certifies steel manufacture (Stage 1) and the rebar processing/welded section fabrication of that steel (Stage 2), but also assesses steel traceability between the two certificate holders. To assist builders personnel make informed determinations, from 1 January, 2020 the wording on ACRS certificates was amended to state clearly that “ACRS certified” may only be applied to steel that arrives on the project with both ACRS Stage 1 (mill) certificates and ACRS Stage 2 (rebar processor, or structural welded section) certificate. Ensure your staff are aware of these important changes to ACRS certificates and make sure your specifications call up ACRS certification for both Stage 1 (mill manufacture) and Stage 2 suppliers (processing and welded section fabrication) to manage your risk of inadvertently accepting non-ACRS approved materials. For further information, including full details of all certificate holders and materials, please visit: builders.steelcertification. com or contact ACRS on T: +61 2 9965 7216 or E: info@steelcertification.com
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