The detailer takes a structural drawing, isolates each piece of steel required to erect the structure. She will design the connections, including the number of angle clips and bolts required, the type, amount and length of weld to attach the connecting elements to the main piece. Field weld must be avoided wherever possible to avoid expensive quality control requirements.
Each separate piece of steel to be fabricated is shown on a separate plan/diagram so that the shop can distribute work to the appropriately skilled worker. The detailer also has to think about erection procedure in such a way that the pieces as fabricated can all fit together in an orderly fashion.
She is also responsible for the integrity of the connections, which often had been the cause of many structural failures.
We can see that the structural detailer is a highly skilled job with lots of responsibilities. Unfortunately the job has not been given as much credit as it deserves, and is often not even known to many in the field.
