CFS structure buildings

Technological advancement brings new solutions to the construction industry that are not only innovative, but also environmentally friendly. Today, the aim is to minimise material consumption, and this is forcing engineers to replace heavy hot-rolled sections with cold-formed thin-walled sections more and more frequently. Reducing the weight of the structure leads to a number of benefits, such as cutting on material consumption and reduced costs associated with the transport and erection of the structure. In addition, any available type of cladding can be used in this type of building, for instance, vertical and horizontal sandwich panels, sheet decking, cassette cladding for façades, etc.

Cold-formed steel buildings incorporate some specific parts that requires the use of a proper method of design. The sections, made from steel strips up to 6 mm thick and limited in width, are usually asymmetric or monosymmetric Class 4 sections with limited load bearing capacity. Hence, the potential range for designing a building is limited by the load-bearing capacity of the section.

Buildings with greater heights or spans, on the other hand, incorporate doubled sections. This solution not only increases the load-bearing capacity of the section, but also greatly facilitates the construction of joints. The most basic load-bearing frame structures consist of two columns and a roof rafter.

The range of applications for cold-formed steel structures is most often the same as for structures built from hot-rolled steel sections. The most common buildings based on cold-formed channel steelwork structure include warehouses, agricultural buildings and workshops.

• Reduced steel consumption by 25% to 50% compared to traditional steel structures
• Cutting construction costs by 10% to 25%
• Free formation of cross-sections
• Favourable durability characteristics
• Neat appearance