Mild steel is the most common form of steel because its price is relatively low whilst it provides material properties that are acceptable for many applications. The material has good weldability properties and is used in most general fabrication and structural steel applications.
Universal beams & columns are widely used in the construction industry and are available in a variety of standard sizes and lengths. They may be used both on their own, or acting compositely with another material, typically concrete.
These steel sections are commonly specified with a code consisting of the major dimension (usually the depth)-x-the minor dimension-x-the mass per metre-ending with the section type, all measurements being metric. Therefore, a 152 x 152 x 23 UC would be a column section (UC = universal column) of approximately 152mm depth x 152mm width and weighing 23kg/m of length.