Back Ground
The construction industry is looking for safe, innovative and improved construction materials and methods for the construction of office, residential and other structures. Construction industry is increasingly demanding for advances in quality, lavish, and better construction in either constructing a commercial or residential building.
Light gauge steel (also know as cold-formed steel) construction is a one of the practical alternative to conventional construction mainly due to higher strength, ductility, and light weight.
Conventional construction trends all over the world are changing. Trends are changing due to fluctuation in prices, limited availability of construction materials. Moreover, pressure from environmentalists has compelled designers, developers and engineers to consider environmentally friendly construction materials for all type of constructions.
The use of light gauge steel also called as cold-formed steel started in around 1850 in both United States and England in the construction of buildings. It gained popularity in the 1940s and is progressively used in Australia, America, New Zealand and Europe.
Manufacturing Of Light Gauge Steel
Cold-formed steel is manufactured in the absence of heat without using high temperatures. The top layer of light gauge steel has a zinc coating that entirely shields the steel top layer and protects it from the eroding act of atmosphere. These zinc coated sheets aids in raising structures which in reality are dense, inflexible, energy efficient and quicker to construct.
Components of light gauge steel are manufactured with the help of two processes Roll-forming and brake pressing.
Roll forming
It is a continuous process used to form smooth level sheet or spiral sheets. It transforms smooth level sheet into shapes or sections needed to utilize them in construction.
A normal roll forming machine involves a series of rollers. The rollers move in the reverse direction when a smooth level sheet passes through them. Each roller minutely creates variations in the dimensions of the smooth level sheet. Roll forming is considered as a quick and fast process of manufacturing regular sections of light gauge steel.
Press Braking
For the production of extensive and comprehensive small sized units of light gauge steel, press braking is utilized. It doesn’t need any costly apparatus for production of any section despite being the fact that it is slower as compared to other processes of cold formed steel. In this process,
In this process, component of light gauge steel are produced using pressed sheets or rolls, producing 1 or 2 turns in given time period. The length of press braking process is normally taken as
six meters.
Advantages Of Light Gauge Steel
Some of the key advantages of Light Gauge steel construction are listed below:
- Buildability: The usage of light gauge steel structures lessens on field works, decreases material wastage.
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- Speed: LGS takes less construction time with comparison to bricks or concrete blocks construction. It overall saves up to 30% time for a project.
- Strong but Lightweight: LGS possess high strength to weight ratio than any other material used for constructing buildings. Due to this, a large amount of reinforcement is saved during foundation construction. Moreover, it can be easily handled and moved from one place to another.
Safety: LGS possess huge safety for inhabitants. It is fire resistant and noncombustible. Cold-formed steel buildings perform better during natural disasters. Due to its light weight, buildings are designed for higher seismic and wind load. - Easy to Remodel: Remodeling of light gauge steel component can be easily attained especially partition walls can be easily shuffled, detached or even changed.
- Design Flexibility: LGS offers flexibility in design as larger span lengths are available due to less weight of structure and space utilization is increased.
- Consistent Material Costs: Light gauge steel members are continuously available due to which price fluctuations are minimum. Moreover, LGS costs lesser as compare to other construction materials. Reduced construction duration, reduced labor costs, reduced scrap and reduced construction waste makes it efficient and cost effective.
Furthermore, it has higher resistance against sound, fire and water. Moreover, it doesn’t have termite problem.