As you look past day-to-day business activities to emerging industry trends, what do you see? How is the steel framing industry evolving?
Larry Williams, former executive director of the Steel Framing Industry Association (SFIA), sees a future filled with construction technology and automation, which will facilitate positive change and help minimize the traditional downsides associated with the built environment.
In a by-lined article for Walls & Ceilings, “The Steel Deal,” Williams says the “cold-formed steel framing industry that is on the forefront of manufacturing innovation and construction productivity” will bring automation technologies and data analysis to the forefront of commercial construction.
Robots + HighVolume CFS Manufacturers
On many construction projects, cold-formed steel (CFS) framing members are assembled by a small crew of framers. That task could be automated, Williams says.
“When coupled with studs and track produced by any of the SFIA’s high-volume manufacturers,” Williams says, “automated assembly processes could exponentially increase the efficiency of cold-formed steel framing.”
High-volume cold-formed steel (CFS) manufacturing, such as the CEMCO line shown here, use mill certified hot-dipped galvanized steel and state-of-the-art roll formers.
Off-site construction is a main driver of the spread of construction automation and data analysis, Williams says.
“While site-built construction isn’t going away, I also believe that a majority of steel framing contractors will have off-site capabilities and facilities in the future,” Williams says. “And a fair number will have integrated BIM and other forms of virtual design and construction technologies into their operations.”
Williams is convinced the framing industry is headed for “a world with automated panel fabrication that utilizes robotics much as they are used on assembly lines to produce the one billion cars on the road today.”
“Cold-formed steel framing has a greater potential to benefit from the adoption of robotics than many other types of construction materials, simply because it is dimensionally stable and does not require the kind of adjustments that wood framing might,” Williams writes. “Wood framing typically requires a skilled operator to make compensations for bends, warps or other variations.”
OFFSITEK, an SFIA member, merges automation, robotic assembly and cutting-edge software.
Your Future Team Members
Williams says that robotics can address the shortage of labor required for construction of building components, such as walls, floors and roofs, by assuming the routine repetitive tasks usually performed in a panel shop.
“Simply replacing those workers with a machine won’t mean that you won’t need workers, it just changes the types of skills that will be in most demand,” Williams says.
What kind of personnel should you be looking for? Williams says the construction industry will need more IT professionals who know how to program and maintain the advanced fabrication equipment, more analysts who can analyze the Big Data generated by the new manufacturing facilities, mechanics who know as much about pneumatics and hydraulics as they do framing and framers who “will transition from actually fastening materials together to focusing on ensuring quality control of robot-assembled building elements.”
“The challenge for individual construction companies is to figure out how to access all of the potentially useful information and to effectively apply proper analysis that results in useful and meaningful insights,” Williams writes.
“Often considered archaic and old school, the construction industry has been undergoing a fundamental makeover into a modern, forward-looking industry that is finally starting to leverage technology to operate smarter, more efficient businesses,” Williams says.
Read the complete article, Robots in Steel Framing Construction, on Walls & Ceilings online.
The Steel Framing Advantage
Cold-formed steel (CFS) leads the way as the preferred framing material for prefabricated structures for multiple reasons. CFS is:
- A pre-engineered material that can be cut to exact lengths
- Dimensionally stable and does not expand or contract with changes in moisture content
- Lightweight compared to wood and concrete
- Resilient and will not warp, split, crack or creep when exposed to the elements
- Sustainable and 100% recyclable
- Durable and has a high tensile strength
- Non-combustible and is a safeguard against fire accidents
Additional Resources
- 3 Trends Driving the Construction Industry
- Canvas Signs Long-Term Leases for Its Finishing Robots with Daley’s Drywall and Nevell Group
- Steel Framing Contractors Use Robots and Other Tech for Tough Tasks