Importance of Window Protectors
It is not about design, economy, or simplicity but rather security. The main purpose of having window protectors is to curb the activities of breaking and entering which has become a norm in most rural areas where security men’s presence is minimal.
Materials Used previously in Making Window Protectors
The old window protectors were usually made with flat-steel bars of various sizes, square-pipe steel of various sizes, and angled steel bars of various sizes, among others.
The use of building rods then was minimal if not zero. Why then are almost 90 percent of the window protectors used in modern buildings made with building rods?
Why Modern Window Protectors are made with Building Rods (reinforcement Bars)
To understand better, the extended use of the building rods has not only reduced the level of waste of such rods from collapsed or demolished buildings.
Besides that, scrap metal sellers now see reasons to gather all the short steel rods found both in streets and building sites for the sole purpose of selling them to welders who fabricate window protectors for builders.
However, in the midst of all that, how reliable is the building rods being used as window protectors? From the result of the impact strength of steel rods, the building rods have high toughness and hardness even with the presence of their malleability.
How Reliable are the Building rods used in making Window Protectors?
Using such material for window protectors will require a great deal of heat from the welding machine for the proper fusion of the joints to occur.
In other words, it will require a very high voltage from the welding machine to properly melt both sides of the steel rod to form the window protectors.
This is very applicable for rods with higher diameters, the small rods, i.e. rods with small diameters have a little problem when using them to make protectors.
The Possible Flaws
Based on experience, most window protectors made with building rods of large diameter do break apart at their welded joints when hitting with a heavy hammer or heavy impact load.
The Reasons For The Flaws
The reason for this ugly incident is the low voltage or welding heat used in joining the joints.
Since the diameters are large, it will require a great deal of welding heat to fuse properly, however, only a few welders understand this and only a few have welding machines that can generate very high welding heat to weld building rods with large diameters properly.
The issue of breaking apart window protectors created rooms for armed robbers to have a strategy of destroying the protectors by simply hitting at the welded joints if they perceive them to be welded poorly.
Some of the building protectors including that of the windows had been compromised with this little secret. Those in the field of metal fabrications can explain this better.
The Solution You Need
To avoid failure and being a victim of this disadvantage, it is very necessary to check the welded joints of your window protectors made with building rods to ascertain the rigidity of the joints.
The idea is that the lesser the rod thickness, the stronger the welded joints and lessen the chance of breaking apart with a heavy hammer. Though poor welding can still make the joints of the rods with small thickness break apart easily, such a chance is always minimal.
CONCLUSION
Using building rods for protectors is good because of the economic value it offers since the price of such rods as off-cuts are far cheaper than other steel bars sold in the steel markets.
It costs less and is readily available from demolished buildings, and other construction jobs sit6es.
However, the user has the duty of paying attention to the quality of the welding machine as well as the experience of the welde4r making such protectors.
