Five free practice questions on erection, assembly and installation: block E of the Ironworker (Generalist) Red Seal exam, 31 of its 120 questions. The same work is block C of the Structural/Ornamental exam (43 of its 120 questions). The Reinforcing exam does not include it. Each question is labelled with the exams it belongs to. They are in the exam's format: four options, one correct answer. Answer each one before opening the explanation. No account, no email.
01The questions
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On a mine-site conveyor bent, an erection bolt has to come out, and its nut will not break loose with a spud wrench. Which tool is made for the extra force?
- The spud wrench with a pipe extension over its handle.
- A striking-face box wrench hit with a sledgehammer.
- The spud wrench, its handle struck with a sledgehammer.
- An adjustable wrench, pulled against its moveable jaw.
Show the answer
B. Correct. Striking-face wrenches have 12-point box openings and are made to be struck with a sledge or ball-peen hammer, so the extra force goes into a tool designed for it. Brace yourself before striking, since the nut may suddenly turn free.
Why not the others
A. A pipe extension overloads the wrench beyond what it is made for and can weaken or break it, or let it slip at height. Heavy-duty long-handled box wrenches and striking-face wrenches exist for this job.
C. Striking an ordinary wrench handle overloads the tempered steel and can crack or break the wrench. The striking-face wrench is the one made to take hammer blows.
D. An adjustable wrench is used with the pull against its permanent jaw; pulled against the moveable jaw it can spread and slip. It is not the tool for a nut that needs extra force.
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A three-tier column-and-beam bay in a stadium has two erection bolts at each beam end, and its connections are to be pretensioned. In what order does the gang work?
- Fill every hole and snug each bolt, then plumb it with the guys.
- Pretension all the connections, then plumb the bay with the guys.
- Plumb, align and level the bay, then fill holes and pretension.
- Pretension the lowest tier first, then plumb the two tiers above.
Show the answer
C. Correct. The frame is plumbed, aligned and levelled while the connections hold only their erection bolts, so the guys can still move it. Filling the holes and pretensioning then lock it in the right position.
Why not the others
A. A full set of snug bolts puts the plies in firm contact and stiffens the frame before it is true, so the guys fight the connections. Plumb with the erection bolts in, then fill the holes and tighten.
B. Pretensioned connections lock the frame where it stands, and pulling it plumb afterwards strains the bolts and members; plumb first, then fill the holes and pretension.
D. The columns run through all three tiers, so locking the bottom tier fixes the columns before their full height has been checked. Plumb the whole bay, then fill the holes and pretension.
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A monorail beam with a trolley hoist is installed in a water treatment plant's pump room. Which CSA standard covers the monorail and hoist themselves?
- CSA Z150
- CSA B167
- CSA Z248
- CSA S16
Show the answer
B. Correct. CSA B167 covers overhead travelling cranes, gantry, jib and wall cranes, monorails and hoists, including the monorail and hoist on a hoist beam like this one.
Why not the others
A. CSA Z150 is the safety code for mobile cranes (lattice and telescopic boom, boom trucks); it does not cover a fixed monorail and hoist.
C. CSA Z248 covers tower cranes (luffing or trolley jib, self-erecting, climbing); a monorail and hoist in a building is a different class of equipment.
D. CSA S16 is the design and construction standard for steel structures; the engineer may use it to design the beam, but the monorail and hoist as lifting equipment fall under CSA B167.
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Why is a standing seam roof on a pre-engineered building held to the purlins by concealed clips rather than by screws through the flat of the panels?
- The clips earth the roof panels to the steel frame for lightning.
- The clips carry wind uplift that screws in the flat cannot resist.
- The clips hold the insulation down so it cannot be compressed.
- The clips let the panels expand and contract along their length.
Show the answer
D. Correct. A standing seam panel moves with temperature over its length; sliding clips hidden in the seam let it move without elongating fastener holes, and there are no exposed fasteners in the roof field to leak.
Why not the others
A. Lightning protection is a separate, designed system; the clips are there to hold the panel while letting it move with temperature.
B. Clips do help hold the roof down, but screws through the flat resist uplift too; the reason for concealed clips is that the panel can slide with temperature, with no exposed holes in the roof field.
C. Clip height can leave room for insulation, but holding the insulation is not their purpose; they anchor the panel while allowing it to move.
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An inclined conveyor's profile drawing places bent B4 at station 0+036.000, measured from a control point at the tail, and the ground between them rises steeply. How is the 36.000 m laid out?
- As a horizontal distance from the control point.
- Along the ground surface, with the tape lying on it.
- Along the stringer slope from the tail bent's cap.
- As the raw slope distance from instrument to prism.
Show the answer
A. Correct. Stations are horizontal distances along the centreline. On sloping ground the 36.000 m is laid out level, by holding the tape level in short steps or by using a total station's horizontal distance, never along the slope.
Why not the others
B. A tape lying on rising ground measures slope distance, which is longer than the horizontal, so B4 would land short of its station. Stations are laid out horizontally.
C. The stringer slope length is longer than the horizontal distance between stations, so measuring along it puts B4 short of its station. Stations are horizontal distances.
D. A total station's raw reading is a slope distance; the set-out uses its computed horizontal distance. Stations are horizontal distances from the control point.
02Answer key
| Question | Answer | Sub-task | Exams |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | B | Attaches structural members | Generalist and Structural/Ornamental exams |
| Q2 | C | Levels, plumbs and aligns structural members | Generalist and Structural/Ornamental exams |
| Q3 | B | Installs miscellaneous components | Generalist and Structural/Ornamental exams |
| Q4 | D | Installs steel cladding and building envelope systems and components | Generalist and Structural/Ornamental exams |
| Q5 | A | Installs material handling systems | Generalist and Structural/Ornamental exams |
03What block E covers
Putting the structure up: falsework, connecting primary members such as columns, beams, girders and trusses and secondary members such as girts, purlins, braces and joists, levelling, plumbing, aligning and guying, bolting to snug-tight or pretension, curtain walls, including precast ornamental panels, and window walls, stairs, railings, grating, decking and catwalks, steel cladding and building envelope systems, and installing, aligning and commissioning conveyors and other material handling systems.
The Red Seal Occupational Standard for Ironworker (Generalist) names this block “Performs erection, assembly and installation”. On the Generalist exam it carries 25.8% of the questions, 31 of the 120, split across three tasks. The share column is each task's weight within the block, as the Generalist standard publishes it; the other columns are the questions each exam gives the task, from each exam's information page (a dot means the task is not on that exam; Structural/Ornamental numbers its tasks as shown in brackets).
| Task and its sub-tasks | Share of block | Generalist | Structural/ Ornamental | Reinforcing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E-15 Installs primary and secondary structural members Uses falsework; Attaches structural members; Levels, plumbs and aligns structural members; Completes installation of structural members | 51% | 16 | 20 (C-10) | · |
| E-16 Installs ornamental, miscellaneous and steel cladding systems and components Installs curtain walls, precast walls and window walls; Installs miscellaneous components; Installs steel cladding and building envelope systems and components | 26% | 8 | 12 (C-11) | · |
| E-17 Installs conveyors, machinery and equipment Installs material handling systems; Performs alignment and commissioning of material handling systems | 23% | 7 | 11 (C-12) | · |
04What the questions turn on
Pins align, bolts hold
A drift pin or the tapered handle of a spud wrench draws the holes into line, but it has no nut and can work out. Each end of a hung beam gets bolts with nuts run up before the hoist line comes off.
Plumb first, then tighten
A bay is plumbed, aligned and levelled while its connections hold only erection bolts, so the guys can still move it; filling the holes and pretensioning then lock it in place. A large joint is snugged from its most rigid part out to its free edges.
Snug-tight is a condition, not a torque
Snug-tight means the plies are in firm contact, as from a few impacts of an impact wrench, with no minimum tension. A sheared spline on a twist-off bolt shows that the wrench reached the breaking torque, not on its own that the bolt reached its pretension.
Let long steel move
A long conveyor gallery truss is fixed at one tower and bolted through slotted holes at the other so it can grow and shrink with temperature. Standing seam roof panels sit on concealed sliding clips for the same reason.
05The other blocks
The Generalist exam has six blocks, and the Structural/Ornamental and Reinforcing exams are built from four of them each. Every block has its own page of free questions:
The Ironworker Red Seal practice exam page describes the full question bank. How these questions are written and checked: how our questions are made. Found a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.