Cold Formed Steel

Cold Formed Steel

Cold-formed steel (CFS) is the common term for products made by rolling or pressing thin gauges of sheet steel into goods. Cold-formed steel goods are created by the working of sheet steel using stamping, rolling, or presses to deform the sheet into a usable product. Cold worked steel products are commonly used in all areas of manufacturing of durable goods like appliances or automobiles but the phrase cold form steel is most prevalently used to described construction materials. The use of cold-formed steel construction materials has become more and more popular since its initial introduction of codified standards in 1946. In the construction industry both structural and non-structural elements are created from thin gauges of sheet steel. These building materials encompass columns, beams, joists, studs, floor decking, built-up sections and other components. Cold-formed steel construction materials differ from other steel construction materials known as hot-rolled steel (see structural steel). The manufacturing of cold-formed steel products occurs at room temperature using rolling or pressing. The strength of elements used for design is usually governed by buckling. The construction practices are more similar to timber framing using screws to assemble stud frames.

Cold-formed steel members have been used in buildings, bridges, storage racks, grain bins, car bodies, railway coaches, highway products, transmission towers, transmission poles, drainage facilities, various types of equipment and others. These types of sections are cold-formed from steel sheet, strip, plate, or flat bar in roll forming machines, by press brake (machine press) or bending operations. The material thicknesses for such thin-walled steel members usually range from 0.0147 in. (0.373 mm) to about ¼ in. (6.35 mm). Steel plates and bars as thick as 1 in. (25.4 mm) can also be cold-formed successfully into structural shapes (AISI, 2007b).