The Qnect development team took on a monumental task when they added Vertical Bracing Connections to the product roadmap. They were confident they could make it work but they knew it would take time and testing.
The hard work paid off. Qnect received a 2020 Hot Product Award for “The world’s most efficient vertical bracing connection.”
Being recognized by Modern Steel Construction, which is the publication of AISC (American Institute of Steel Construction), is a huge honor.
Qnect’s Director of Global Marketing and Sales, Christian Erickson said, “working with the product team to bring these enhancements to the steel community is a thrill for me as a marketer. I talk daily with our customers and before vertical bracing came out I would hear how important vertical bracing would be for their projects. Since the release, we’ve seen a jump in demo requests and new projects despite the challenges that COVID has brought to the industry.”
If you’d like to see Vertical Bracing in action, visit this blog post and view the introduction video accompanied with a transcript.
What makes Qnect’s vertical bracing so efficient?
The extensive use of Qnect's patented, iterative process for optimizing all of the engineering variables makes Qnect's vertical bracing, as well as the rest of Qnect's connection library, extremely efficient.
When asked how the Qnect Vertical Brace works, Qnect’s CTO, Jeff Hausthor explained, “Qnect iterates up to 1,000 gusset plate shapes. Then, for each gusset we design the gusset to beam to produce a single pass weld when possible. Then, gusset to column flange, using a shear plate. The shear plate itself undergoes a full range of optimization possibilities. Next the gusset to HSS brace itself. The length of the brace weld is controlled by the user’s preferences including the priority to maintain a single pass field weld. Finally, we move to the beam to column connection.”
View the full Qnect announcement of vertical bracing here.
Hot Product Write Up:
Qnect recently introduced “The world’s most efficient vertical bracing connection.” This release expands Qnect’s connection optimization breadth and provides additional time and money savings to steel detailers, fabricators and structural engineers. Vertical bracing now rounds out the full spectrum of optimized connections from gravity connections to moment connections to the lateral bracing system. What makes Qnect’s vertical bracing so efficient is their patented, iterative process for optimizing all of the engineering variables. All connections meet or exceed AISC code and produce detailed reports for easy review. This new feature, combined with existing capabilities such as Preference Optimization and Bolt Optimization, can produce connection savings of 30%-60%. Every Qnect new release will continue to make steel faster and smarter for every project.
