Headline Engineering, one of the leaders in the UAE's construction sector, is poised to complete its contract to detail, fabricate and erect steelwork for the new Grand Hyatt Hotel, located adjacent to Wafi City in Dubai.

To manage more than 1,400 tonnes of steel required for the construction of the hotel, Headline has partnered with Tekla Middle East to deploy Tekla's Xsteel solution, an industry-leading application for modelling and detailing of steel structures.

One of the most critical components of the Grand Hyatt construction was the creation of shopdrawings that detail the lattice work of trusses for the ballrooms, bridges and entrance canopy of the hotel. Headline utilised Tekla Xsteel to create three-dimensional shopdrawings at a rate four times faster than with traditional construction software, enabling the building fabrication to begin at an accelerated pace, says a Dubai-based spokesman for Tekla Middle East.

"Two fundamental concerns in the Middle East's construction sector are delivering to the client accurately and on time, and Headline's technology partnership with Tekla has enabled us to meet both of these criteria for the Grand Hyatt hotel project,'' says Umer Whitehead, general manager of Headline Engineering. ''In fact, for projects in which we have deployed Xsteel, Headline has enjoyed a zero per cent 'rework' rate from inaccurate drawings, which means we are getting the fabrication right the first time and using resources more efficiently."

The utilisation of software in the construction industry can decrease building time as well as reducing the likelihood of costly errors, saving both time and money. Headline's 3-D drawings of the Grand Hyatt, produced using the Tekla solution, allowed the company's engineers to view a skeleton of steel connections to ensure the correct fitting of joints, as well as reduce the possibility of steel wastage, he says.

These drawings then enable Headline's client to "see" in a realistic manner how exactly a building like the Grand Hyatt structure fits together.

"Headline is forecasted to grow about 40 per cent this year, with an additional 30 per cent in 2002, and I believe that our success can be partly attributed to the benefits we receive from Tekla's Xsteel solution. As steel competes with concrete as the material of choice in the Middle East's high-end construction sector, it's vital that engineers have the technology available to erect new projects more quickly, safely and profitably," adds Whitehead.

Headline Engineering commenced operations in 1992 and has grown into one of the UAE's most diversified organisations, offering a unique blend of engineering, fabrication, machining and assembly capabilities. It supplies fabricated products to all sectors of the heavy engineering and process industries, including steel mills, cement, petrochemical, oil and gas industry, environmental and power generation groups as well as providing the structural steel framework for many of the high-rise buildings in the UAE.

Tekla's corporate headquarters is located in Espoo, Finland. It has its own subsidiaries in France, Germany, Malaysia, Norway, Sweden, the UK and US.

In addition, the company has representative offices in China, Japan and now in Dubai. Net sales of Tekla Corporation for 2000 were $24 million. Its web address is www.tekla.com