Steel Building Frame Features

Wall openings big enough for vehicles, heavy equipment and other large items to pass through require their own sub frames or "framed openings."

Almost every steel building has at least one, and most have several framed openings, usually outfitted with some type of overhead door. Many companies only offer "field located" framed openings, which the builder must measure and cut into the frame on the job site with no plans as a guide. STEELBUILDING.COM always pre-engineers "factory-located" framed openings. They are illustrated in the drawings, and all the parts are pre-cut and labeled. Perhaps more importantly, each metal building system is pre-engineered to withstand the stresses and loads created by the various framed openings specified in its design.

Steel plates called "clips" provide the connection points for framing components. Even a small building may use 100 or more clips. Many companies supply only loose clips that must be bolted onto the components before erection can begin. In the best of circumstances, this requires several hours' work. If clips are missing, your job can be held up for days. STEELBUILDING.COM engineers clip placement into each agricultural or industrial building and welds the clips onto the components in the right place with the correct bolt pattern during fabrication. With our buildings, you won't waste any time attaching clips, and you won't have to worry about missing clips. You can start erecting your frames immediately.

Every building faces constant stress from forces like torsion, shear, compression, and lift. To counteract this pressure, steel buildings employ one or more forms of bracing. Flange bracing is standard on all steel buildings. It consists of structural angles connected between the rafters and purlins to prevent the rafters rolling from side to side under a load. Diaphragm bracing is created by the wall and roof paneling. When attached to the frame, the panels act like a membrane or "diaphragm" stretched over the building, pulling it together.

For most steel buildings under 65' wide the diaphragm action provides all the bracing that is needed, but when high winds, heavy snow loads or even a large number of openings creates extra stress, an agricultural or industrial steel building may require one of the following types of additional reinforcement. X bracing employs steel rods or cables to connect various parts of the frame tightly. Weak axis bending increases the size of the main-frame base plates to prevent columns from twisting under heavy stress. A wind column is an additional vertical member, which reinforces a column. A portal frame or wind-bent column is a sub-frame consisting of two portal columns and a portal rafter placed between the two adjacent mainframe columns in a bay. Portal frames are fairly expensive and only necessary in extreme circumstances.