Cold-formed steel is one of the strongest, most durable and efficient construction materials you can build with. If you’ve ever wanted to know more about how all of this is possible, then this is the article for you!
Cold-formed steel framing (also called lightweight steel framing or light-gauge steel framing) is used around the world in a wide range of applications, from homes and hotels to retail stores and schools. As more engineers, developers and contractors understand its features and benefits for their projects, we thought you might be interested in a brief breakdown of its production.
Let’s take a look at how it’s made, right from the beginning…
Cold-formed steel has its humble beginnings with iron ore, which is mined, transported to local steel mills and melted in large blast furnaces. Through a series of processes, impurities are removed and the molten iron is cast into large steel slabs. These are then cooled, reheated then rolled into extremely long and thin sheets.
Each sheet – only fractions of an inch thick – is cut to size and cooled, then rolled into large coils that are by now thousands of feet long. These coils are not light – each weighs between 7 and 15 tons! A cleaning process called “pickling” bathes the steel sheets in acid to remove surface impurities before preparing the product for manufacturers.
At this point, the steel rolls are given an additional crucial step in the process: cold rolling. This step makes the steel even thinner and applies a protective zinc coating.
It’s at this point that the steel roll is delivered to a cold-formed steel system manufacturer. The roll is carefully unloaded, unwound and cut into the exact pieces needed for a specific project.
In the case of TotalJoist floor joists, an industrial-strength stamping machine punches large service holes for mechanical, electrical and plumbing services. Some pieces of cold-formed steel, such as steel studs in prefabricated wall panels, require bending and so a separate machine accomplishes that.
Once the cold-formed steel sections are cut and shaped to size, they are assembled in convenient sizes. Each piece of joist, and decking and is now ready for installation, complete with descriptive labels, and loaded in bundles on a flatbed truck.
Upon arrival on the jobsite, the bundles are unloaded and can be immediately installed. Since every piece is labeled and fabricated to exact specifications, installation can happen much faster than other building materials, such as lumber and concrete.
Do you have questions about the cold-formed steel system fabrication process? Reach out to us today!
