Grade 500E reinforcing steel, New Zealand Standards and B1/VM1
During the investigation we worked closely with Standards New Zealand and in March 2004 they published amendments to concrete Standards NZS 3101: Part 1: 1995 The Design of Concrete Structures and NZS 3109: 1997 Concrete Construction. These amendments introduced the joint Standard AS/NZS 4671:2001 Steel Reinforcing Material.
AS/NZS 4671 replaced:
- NZS 3402:1989 Steel Bars for the Reinforcement of Concrete
- NZS 3421:1975 Specification for Hard Drawn Mild Steel Wire for Concrete Reinforcement
- NZS 3422:1975 Specification for Welded Fabric of Drawn Steel Wire for Concrete Reinforcement.
These amendments identified Grade 500E MA and QT reinforcing steels and specifically covered the handling limitations (bending, re-bending, welding, galvanising and threading) of these two types of reinforcing steel.
In March 2005 we cited the above amendments to the concrete Standards in Building Code Verification Method B1/VM1.