With ANSI Accreditation, SFIA Begins Process of Managing CFS Framing Standards

FALLS CHURCH, VA (July 2, 2024) — Effective July 2, 2024, the Executive Standards Council of the American National Standards Institute, ANSI®, has approved the accreditation of the Steel Framing Industry Association (SFIA) under its proposed operating procedures for documenting consensus on SFIA-sponsored American National Standards.

This means that, as an ANSI-accredited standards development organization, SFIA assumes the management of certain cold-formed steel (CFS) framing standards previously managed by the American Iron and Steel Institute. Six CFS framing standards and a series of test standards will be governed by the newly formed SFIA Standards Committee and managed by SFIA using the Canvass Method.

The canvass groups are now being formed. Those interested in participating ion steel framing standards development should complete this Cold-Formed Steel Framing Standards Development Expression of Interest Survey.

The SFIA Standards Committee

The SFIA Standards Committee, which will give approval to the actions of the canvass groups, consists of:

1. Pat Ford, P.E., S.E., committee chair and SFIA technical director;
2. Roger A. LaBoube, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, distinguished teaching professor of civil engineering and director, Wei-Wen Yu Center for Cold-Formed Steel Structures at the University of Missouri-Rolla;
3. Greg Ralph, vice president at ClarkDietrich and chair of the SFIA Code Compliance Committee;
4. Jeff Klaiman, P.E., principal at ADTEK Engineers and chair of the SFIA Technical Committee;
5. Benjamin W. Schafer, Ph.D., P.E., the Willard and Lillian Hackerman Professor of Civil and Systems Engineering at Johns Hopkins University;
6. Bill Babich, P.E., director of engineering, at the TrusSteel Division of Alpine Engineered Products, Inc.;  and
7. Rob Madsen, P.E., senior project engineer, at Devco Engineering, Inc.

Jay Larson, P.E., F.ASCE, will serve as secretariat. Industry professionals that would like to serve on an SFIA Canvass Group can contact Meredith Perez, the SFIA administrator.

SFIA to Manage 6 Framing Standards and More

As an ANSI-accredited standards development organization, the SFIA will manage steel framing standards through soon-to-be formed SFIA Canvass Groups. The steel framing standards and test standards that SFIA will be responsible for will include:

1. S202 – Code of Standard Practice for Cold-Formed Steel Structural Framing, which includes trade practices for design, fabrication and installation of CFS
2. S220 – North American Standard for Cold-Formed Steel Nonstructural Framing, which includes the design and installation of nonstructural CFS framing
3. S230 – Standard for Cold-Formed Steel Framing – Prescriptive Method for One- and Two-Family Dwellings, which includes the construction of detached one- and two-family dwellings, townhouses, other attached single-family dwellings
4. S240 – North American Standard for Cold-Formed Steel Structural Framing, which applies to the design, manufacture, installation and quality of structural members and connections utilized in CFS light-frame construction
5. S250 – North American Standard for Thermal Transmittance of Building Envelopes with Cold-Formed Steel Framing, which is used to determine U-factors for assessing the energy code compliance of building envelopes with CFS framing
6. S400 – North American Standard for Seismic Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structural Systems, which includes the design and construction of CFS structural members and connections used in the seismic force-resisting systems (to be partitioned out for framing only)
7. S900 Series – Test Standards for CFS Framing, which includes several applicable CFS Framing standards (see box below)

“We are grateful for the work that the American Iron and Steel Institute has done in developing steel framing standards up to this point,” says Don Allen, SFIA executive director, about the switch in steel framing standards management from AISI to SFIA. “We are looking forward to managing the standards to provide an efficient design path that effectively utilizes the capabilities of cold-formed steel framing.”

Additional Resources

• SFIA Seeks Participants for Cold-Formed Steel Framing Standards Development
• SFIA Appoints Jay Larson as Secretariat of the Newly Formed SFIA Standards Committee
• 5 Need-to-Knows about Building Codes and Cold-Formed Steel