Tech Note B001-20: How Cold-Formed Steel Framing is Produced
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Summary: Cold-formed steel seems like a fairly simple product when you are holding it in your hand, but as you can see, there are many production steps involving things like mining iron ore out of the ground, creating molten steel, furnaces above 2,000°F, reduction mills imparting forces in excess of 100,000 pounds per square inch, and hydrochloric acid cleaning baths before it even reaches the roll forming stage. This Tech Note has provided a basic outline of the processes involved in producing the products you work with daily, be it manufacturing, drafting, designing, engineering, installing or demolishing a building at the end of its life cycle.
Disclaimer: Designs cited herein are not intended to preclude the use of other materials, assemblies, structures or designs when these other designs demonstrate equivalent performance for the intended use. CFSEI documents are not intended to exclude the use and implementation of any other design or construction technique.
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Tech Note G200-21: Chase the Loads: Load Path Considerations for Cold-Formed Steel Light-Frame Construction
Summary: Engineering students are admonished to “chase the loads” in their structural analysis and design courses. A “load path” is the direction in which each consecutive load will pass through framing members and the connected members of a framing assembly. The load path sequence begins at the point of load application, both vertical (gravity, wind uplift or seismic vertical) and lateral, on the structure and works all the way down to the footing or foundation system, ultimately transferring the load of the structure to the foundation. This Tech Note provides insight into the load path considerations for cold-formed steel framing.
This Technical Note updates and replaces CFSEI Technical Note G200-15
Disclaimer: Designs cited herein are not intended to preclude the use of other materials, assemblies, structures or designs when these other designs demonstrate equivalent performance for the intended use. CFSEI documents are not intended to exclude the use and implementation of any other design or construction technique.

Tech Note G102-09: Designing Cold-Formed Steel using the Direct Strength Method
Summary: The Direct Strength Method is an entirely new design method for cold-formed steel. The Direct Strength Method requires no effective width calculations, eliminates tedious iterations to determine section properties, properly includes interaction effects between elements of the cross-section such as the flange and the web, and opens up the potential to create new sections as it is applicable to nearly any shape that can be formed from cold-formed steel, as opposed to just C, Z and hat shapes. The Direct Strength Method was first adopted in 2004 as Appendix 1 to the North American Specification for the Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structural Members, and the most recent version can be found in the recently published AISI-S100-07. This CFSEI Technical Note introduces the Direct Strength Method and details some of the features of a recently published AISI Design Guide for this Method. The intent of this Tech Note and the Guide is to provide engineers with practical guidance in the application of this new design method.
Note: This document was originally published as G100-09, Corrected to G102-09 in April 2011
Disclaimer: Designs cited herein are not intended to preclude the use of other materials, assemblies, structures or designs when these other designs demonstrate equivalent performance for the intended use. CFSEI documents are not intended to exclude the use and implementation of any other design or construction technique.

Tech Note 551e: Design Guide: Permanent Bracing of Cold-Formed Steel Trusses
Summary: Prefabricated and site fabricated cold-formed steel trusses have proven to be efficient and structurally-sound roof structures. While roof trusses are the major component of the structural roof system, permanent bracing is also required to complete the system and ensure that it performs as designed. In this Tech Note, the basic requirements and design parameters for permanent bracing of cold-formed steel roof systems will be reviewed.
Disclaimer: Designs cited herein are not intended to preclude the use of other materials, assemblies, structures or designs when these other designs demonstrate equivalent performance for the intended use. CFSEI documents are not intended to exclude the use and implementation of any other design or construction technique.

Tech Note G105-22: Compression Member Reinforcement
Summary: To modify the capacity of a compression member, e.g. wall stud or truss web, adding a reinforcement may result in a non-prismatic member. This Tech Note provides guidance to evaluate the strength of a non-prismatic compression member.
Disclaimer: Designs cited herein are not intended to preclude the use of other materials, assemblies, structures or designs when these other designs demonstrate equivalent performance for the intended use. CFSEI documents are not intended to exclude the use and implementation of any other design or construction technique.

Tech Note F101-12: Screws for Cold-Formed Steel-To-Wood and Wood-To-Cold-Formed Steel Attachments
Summary: Screws are often used to attach cold-formed steel (CFS) framing to wood members or wood structural panel decking to CFS joists or rafters. The AISI North American Specification for the Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structural Members (AISI S100) provides design equations for screw connection capacity for CFS members. The National Design Specification for Wood Construction (NDS) provides design equations for fastener/connection capacity (nails, wood screws, bolts, etc.) in wood members. The Engineered Wood Association (APA) and the building codes offer several resources for determining the capacity of screw connections attaching wood sheathing. This Tech Note reviews these resources and discusses design and detailing of these fastener connections.
Disclaimer: Designs cited herein are not intended to preclude the use of other materials, assemblies, structures or designs when these other designs demonstrate equivalent performance for the intended use. CFSEI documents are not intended to exclude the use and implementation of any other design or construction technique.

Tech Note F102-21: Screw Fastener Selection For Cold-Formed Steel Frame Construction
Summary: Specifying the proper fastener is necessary to assure the proper performance of the connections used in cold-formed steel construction. Cold-formed steel connections primarily utilize externally threaded fasteners, so embedment is not the controlling parameter. Instead, the design of the fastener along with the thickness of the steel govern the value of the connection. This Tech Note provides basic information for determining the appropriate screw type for various applications.
This Technical Note updates and replaces CFSEI Tech Note F102-11
Disclaimer: Designs cited herein are not intended to preclude the use of other materials, assemblies, structures or designs when these other designs demonstrate equivalent performance for the intended use. CFSEI documents are not intended to exclude the use and implementation of any other design or construction technique.

Tech Note G500-11: Guidelines for Inspecting Cold-Formed Steel Structural Framing in Low Rise Buildings
Summary: The purpose of this document is to provide guidance for inspecting cold-formed steel structural framing in buildings not greater than 3 stories in height.
Disclaimer: Designs cited herein are not intended to preclude the use of other materials, assemblies, structures or designs when these other designs demonstrate equivalent performance for the intended use. CFSEI documents are not intended to exclude the use and implementation of any other design or construction technique.

Tech Note G104-14: Welded Box-Beam Flexure Design
Summary: A box-beam configuration may be used at openings in a floor or wall framing assembly. The AISI S100 contains design provisions for a built-up flexural members consisting of two C-sections back-to-back used as a flexural member. For built-up members to act as one unit (composite), the members must be connected together with sufficient fasteners and spacing. This Tech Note illustrates the extrapolation S100 Section D1.1 provisions to a box-beam configuration.
Disclaimer: Designs cited herein are not intended to preclude the use of other materials, assemblies, structures or designs when these other designs demonstrate equivalent performance for the intended use. CFSEI documents are not intended to exclude the use and implementation of any other design or construction technique.