The Genesis of ARMCO
All across the world, construction companies just like Australian Bollards are supplying W-Beam Railings as a quality road safety solution. Essentially, the W-Beam Railing (AB-BSH) is named after its bendable shape that resembles the letter W. However, many years ago they were once known as ARMCO Railings which stands for The American Rolling Mill Company (ARMCO).
The company was founded in 1900 by George M. Verity in Middletown, Ohio and they specialised in the manufacturing of iron and steel sheets. ARMCO produced rolled sheets of steel at the beginning of their production. It was labor intensive and difficult for their workers at the time. However, in 1921 an ARMCO employee, John Butler Tytus, created a formula to produce steel more efficiently and with using less workers, allowing it to be less labor intensive. This was a substantial change in the way the company worked and produced their products.
ARMCO Railings were used in 1933 by the Sheffield Steel Corporation of Kansas to install across F1 racing circuits to save the lives of drivers and spectators in case of a crash. Now many companies across Australia and the world are saving lives and minimising damage with a W-Beam Railing system, just like Australian Bollards.
The new process involved rolling the sheet metal into large coils. With the old process, ARMCO could only produce 520 tons of steel each month. In comparison, the new method allowed 40,000 tons of steel to be produced monthly. This is a very large and positive impact on the company, workers and their profit. The high level of production efficiency allowed ARMCO to be one of the most successful steel making companies in the world. In 1914, ARMCO branched out and began production at its first foreign plant company which took place in Brazil.
After many successful years, ARMCO changed their name a few times as they grew as a company. Initially beginning with The American Rolling Mill Company (ARMCO), then transferring it to Armco Steel Corporation before changing it once again to Armco Inc in 1978. Their headquarters remained in Middletown, Ohio until 1985 before moving across the country as their production reached many other places through America such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The birth of ARMCO has created a worldwide community within all construction companies. Today in 2022, ARMCO is the history that W-Beam Railings are created from. Australian Bollards has always been about safety and community protection, and with their development of W-Beam Railings (AB-BSH) it provides the solution to quality protection on our Australian roads.
Australian Bollards prioritises their products manufacturing to provide safety measures to help prevent any type of severe incidents from occurring. The W-Beam Railing (AB-BSH) can be installed on flat and curved surfaces without its strength and safety being compromised. It spreads the impact of a collision along the sections of the beam, allowing it to absorb high and heavy impacts. W-Beam Railings are a form of Hostile Vehicle Mitigation (HVM) that prevents unintentional or intentional collisions.
Australian Bollards take safety very seriously, that’s why they provide many options for their W-Beam Railing (AB-BSH). They can be installed as a double or triple height barrier, allowing for a higher surface area protection, as an alternative to the standard single height barrier.
Essentially, Australian Bollards’ W-Beam Railings (AB-BSH) are the present day creation from what was once ARMCO.
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