What is Cold Formed Steel Framing?
Cold formed steel framing (also called metal studs or lightweight steel framing systems) makes the steel shapes differently than the hot rolled structural steel. The cold forming process passes steel sheets between large rollers to deform the steel, but at a lower temperature than hot rolling. The rolling process compresses and stretches the steel, hardening it in the process. Most cold rolled steel is either 33,000 psi or 50,000 psi yield strength. The typical shapes and their sizes and attributes are shown at this website: http://www.loseke.com/lgsi.html (which has all the technical information available about cold formed steel framing). At the site listed above, you can scroll down the left menu to find the properties of C sections and Z sections.
