The new German DIN 488 reinforcing steel standard

DIN 1045: Supporting structures made from concrete, steel reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete, part 1: dimensioning and construction, was introduced by the building authorities in September 2002. In chapter 9.2 of this standard, requirements were placed for the first time on the ductility of reinforcing steel that the still valid edition of DIN 488, issue 1984-08 or 1986-06, does not contain. For this reason the Deutsche Institut für Bautechnik at that time closed this loophole with appendices to building rule lists. In September 2002 it was also thought that work on the European reinforcing steel standard EN 10080 was on the finishing straight. With this standard it would have been possible to replace DIN 488 and additional regu-lations and connect elegantly to DIN 1045-1. Unfortunately, the expectations for EN 10080 have not been fulfil-led. They were published in the Official European Journal in April 2006 only to be removed from it again in October 2006. A harmonised European reinforcing steel standard is not expected in the near future either. For this reason the circle of involved parties – manufacturers, users and the building authorities – have agreed to elaborate a new German reinforcing steel standard.

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