Square Tubing For Portable Livestock Systems, Common Grades & Sizes
I’m looking for some advice on selecting grades & sizes of square tubing for a line of portable livestock containment & handling systems that I’m developing. In the past, we’ve used 14-gauge A513 mild steel in 1.5” squares with 14-gauge sheeting, which we’ve had excellent results with. Unfortunately, even our shortest panels (8’ x 60” - 72”, suspended between bows or gates) are extremely heavy, to the point that it can be difficult to market them as “portable.”
I have been trying to find a supplier who was willing to help price a different set of materials for me, with no luck. My goal is to reduce the weight, depth and feet of tubing per panel. Along with my suppliers, my business partners and I have no experience with medium-carbon, low-alloy or other higher-tensile-strength steels. Using 1-1/4” may be possible but would be less than ideal due to aesthetics (visual barrier to the animals, perceived quality to the customer). My thought was to make the panels out of 1-1/3” (or metric equivalent) square tube with about an .065 wall thickness and sheeting with a .065 wall thickness, using a grade that would put the strength on par with 1-1/2” at 14-gauge. Alternatively, we could continue to use 1-1/2”, only in a different grade and wall thickness.
At this point, I have not called any mills directly but we would probably be willing to purchase in truckload quantity for cost savings. Does anyone have any thoughts relating to the engineering, availability and cost aspects of what I’m talking about? Any thoughts would be appreciated.