Macsteel and its partners announce attempt to break Guinness World Record

MACSTEEL, a merchandiser and distributor of steel, in partnership with Tate & Nicholson, Fortress, Pick n Pay, and WBHO, has announced that it will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest roof span covered by a single metal corrugated sheet.

Macsteel’s roofing unit roll-formed the sheets spanning the width of 280 metres, across the widest part of the roof covering the new Pick n Pay flagship distribution centre in Kempton Park. National product specialist at Macsteel Roofing, David Reid, said at a briefing yesterday that the width of the longest sheet to be ever rolled in the world was 200m, while Macsteel’s sheet width is 280m.

He said the management team had decided to apply to enter the Guinness World Records. The company would know next week if it had broken the record.

“The biggest challenges for the project was that after November last year, the country had unprecedented rain for about three months. That challenged us because you can’t roll-form these sheets when it is raining and you can’t install. Another challenge was catching up with the programme that was almost delayed due to the rain. We have caught up though,” Reid said.

Macsteel used its South African roofing product Novotexi 440, roll-formed on site, while using its industry-leading Sky Forming process.

“It would have been much harder to break the world record without pairing these two Macsteel innovations,” Macsteel said. The roofing product, Novotexi 440, was developed by Macsteel to resist high winds on large-scale roofing projects and to meet the challenges that engineers face in providing solutions for extreme weather conditions caused by climate change, it said.

The company uses Sky Forming to streamline the roofing of mega-build projects. It is the process where the roll-forming container producing the Novotexi 440 sheet is lifted to the level of the roof so that it can seamlessly apply the product.