'A clever piece of work, made in Holland'

De Kok Staalbouw is a Dutch steel construction company, founded and raised in Heerle in Brabant. With Rinus and Emiel de Kok, the third generation is now at the helm of the family business, which in more than 90 years has grown into a leading national and international player, specializing in the product groups utilities, industry, petrochemicals, sports & leisure, steel bridges and on- & offshore. De Kok Staalbouw has also been active in crane building for many years.

Everything under one roof

"De Kok Staalbouw is the ideal strategic partner for (medium) sized contracting companies and end users," emphasizes head of execution Eddy Dingemans. "Thanks to a diversity of products, an approximately 26,000 m² production hall with the latest, automated production machines and the know-how of our approximately 150 employees, we offer all capacity, knowledge and expertise under one roof. We can perform the entire process of steel structures in-house: from design, calculation and drawing to production, conservation and assembly, according to the highest execution class (execution class 4)."

Involved from A to Z

"We like to advise from an early project stage and think along with the architect, main structural engineer, contractor and façade builder in a building team to arrive at the most optimal steel construction," says Dingemans. "Both in form and products. We also like to take stock of which working methods are possible and desirable, as well as clarify the interfaces with other disciplines. This results not only in a smooth execution and short lines, but also in a high-quality and cost-efficient construction."

As an example of such an extensive process, he cites the renovation of office complex Tripolis in Amsterdam, the execution phase of which has recently started. "Our structural engineers and draftsmen provided extensive advice in the DO and TO phases. They then provided detailed engineering based on the technical design and completely in-house, including determining the final nodes/connections. After approval, our engineering department generated the workshop drawings and digital files from the model, which are used to control our high-quality machinery. Thanks to this automation, accurate dimensioning is guaranteed at all times. Failure costs due to communication noise are not an issue."

In the modern machine park, all steel products are processed fully automatically, Dingemans said. "Where a number of machines take care of drilling, sawing and cutting the steel profiles, other machines are responsible for drilling and bevelling the connecting plates. Subsequently, all products are assembled at the assembler, welded to the desired weld weight and checked by our internal quality controllers. Before the steel products leave the plant, they are shot blasted in the preservation department and provided with the desired preservation system. All products are transported just-in-time and by our own trucks to the construction site, where our own assembly teams ensure careful assembly."

The more complex, the better

In addition to being a total steel builder, De Kok Staalbouw is increasingly being asked to act as a total builder in projects in which the civil contractor performs the substructure and De Kok Staalbouw is responsible for the complete superstructure. Including the facade finishing. A perfect example of such a project is the new Shipyard Hall with steel dock door for Royal Van Lent in Amsterdam. "We don't turn our hand to challenging projects," Dingemans emphasizes. "In fact, the more complex, the better. The connecting bridge for Air Traffic Control the Netherlands and the new connection between the B and C piers (BC-Link) at Schiphol Airport, the extra floor/optop for VORM's head office in Rotterdam and the transformation of office to residential building The Mayor in Amstelveen confirm our expertise." De Kok Staalbouw also engineers and builds large, special cranes for partner van Haagen Kraanbouw, providing not only the steel construction but also the motorization and electrical connection of all components. Illustrative of this is the construction of a portal crane with a hook height of 120 meters and a lifting capacity of 1,500 tons, which is used to unload concrete foundations for the wind turbine industry, among other things.