14/01/2024
Cold-formed light gauge steel is becoming increasingly popular in Australia due to its many advantages over traditional construction materials. Steel's strength, stiffness, robustness, dimensional stability, and environmental resistance make it an ideal material for many applications, including residential construction, roofing and walling systems, portal frames and sheds, street hardware, racking systems, internal fit-out, mid-rise buildings, and modular construction.
In residential construction, steel is being used more frequently due to the many benefits it brings over traditional forms of construction. Roofing and walling systems, comprising purlins, girts, and profiled metal sheeting, are extensively used on residential, industrial, and commercial buildings. Cold-formed portal frames and sheds are used for a range of purposes, including commercial, industrial, agricultural, and domestic buildings.
Street hardware such as poles, fences, and other street hardware increasingly utilize cold-formed steel, and racking systems use cold-formed light gauge steel beams and columns in highly optimized multi-level configurations for intensive storage of goods. Structural decking systems are pervasive in composite steel-concrete construction in multi-level building structures, acting either as permanent formwork or compositely as part of the structural action of the suspended concrete slab.
Cold-formed light gauge steel framing is used extensively for internal partitioning and ceiling systems in commercial and industrial buildings. Recent developments have seen mid-rise (up to 7-8 storeys) commercial and residential buildings with cold-formed light gauge steel used for the majority of primary structural framing. Modular construction using cold-formed light gauge steel provides significant benefits, including strength, stiffness, lightness, and dimensional stability.
