Challenging project brings Swoosh to Soweto

Steel and tube supplier Stewarts & Lloyds Robertville has successfully completed a steel fabrication project for global brand Nike in the newly developed Shapa Soweto Training Centre, in Soweto, Gauteng.

The project entailed the fabrication of a roofing structure, made of 406 individually made steel formations which, when walked under, reflects the Nike ‘Swoosh’ logo.

The project was one of the company’s most challenging and unique projects to date owing to the fact that no rebar machine bends at the required angles - each section is made of rebar that is bent at an increase of 2º for every section, to create the Swoosh effect.

The Stewarts & Lloyds Robertville team was really tested as they tried to see if hand bending would work, but that made the task impossible within the time span.

What ended up working for the team was to forge pins using an Italian reinforcing machine to specially bend at these small degrees.

The whole process was extremely complicated with the team running through 40 pins, as they would snap owing to their small diameter.

“The steel structure we created required state-of-the-art metal-bending technology and an out-of-the box design,” Stewarts & Lloyds sales manager Andre Stander tells Engineering News.

He enthuses that the Y8 rebar weighed about 70 t, with the full structure comprising more than 400 t of steel in various forms.

The roof is made of 406 individual Y8 structures, 1.6 mm hot-rolled steel sheets, 50 mm × 50 mm × 5 mm angle bars and 50 mm × 5 mm flat bar.

“We worked closely with our suppliers, the designers and fabricators to successfully deliver on the technicality, intricacy, difficulty and uniqueness of this project,” he says.

Covid-19 Effect

Stander says the project came to a complete standstill, owing to Covid-19 restrictions, as well as the lockdowns affecting steel supply, logistics and staffing capacity.

“The project was initiated in November 2019, with the first steel sample being manufactured by February 2020; however, there were delays after the lockdown was implemented, and a few design changes were made.”

Despite the severe shortage of materials, Stewarts & Lloyds branch manager Michelle Toy was able to procure 8 t of Y8 rebar so that the project could start.

The staffing restrictions also resulted in Stander having to oversee the bending of the Y8 at the bending yard, as well as transporting the materials to the fabrication site.

Regardless of the challenges, Stewarts & Lloyds Robertville is proud to have delivered this one-of-a-kind structure, working together with “a great team” and industry peers, Stander concludes.