Photo courtesy CEMCO Steel
Cold-formed steel is strong and versatile with the potential to deliver numerous benefits to designers, allowing structures that are thinner with complex geometries. In the manufacturing process, a metallic-coated sheet steel is roll-formed into products such as studs, joists, track, headers, angles, truss members, and other components. By reducing the amount of steel needed to create a durable, resilient, and code-compliant building, the material contributes greatly to the steel industry’s efforts to improve sustainability throughout a building’s lifecycle and simplify natural resource management.
Cold-formed steel structures have the potential to deliver high-efficiency building designs by utilizing minimal material and advanced geometric shapes in structural members. Until recently, standards focused on design of the individual cold-formed steel structural members—making it difficult for designers and engineers to take full advantage of the capabilities and benefits of cold-formed steel members working together as a system.
Addressing this issue, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) is improving on previous standards by introducing a more comprehensive and useful suite of standards for professionals. Find out more in Steel Framing—the newest free e-book in The Construction Specifier series. Download the resource here.
