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Cold formed sections are made by bending steel strip or sheet, usually 1–6 mm thick, into shapes such as C, Z, U, sigma and omega at room temperature, on a roll-forming line or a press brake. Light and efficient, they are the purlins and girts of almost every steel shed and the studs and joists of light-gauge steel framing.
Unlike hot-rolled sections, which are rolled from a red-hot bloom, cold formed sections are bent from flat steel at room temperature. Coil is unwound, slit to width, and passed through a roll-forming line whose pairs of shaped rolls bend it step by step into the final profile; punching for bolt holes and cutting to length are done in line, so a purlin comes off the line to the exact length and hole pattern of the building it is for. Short runs and unusual shapes are folded on a press brake instead.
Because the steel is thin, a cold formed section is very light for its depth — a 200 mm deep, 2 mm thick C purlin weighs about 6 kg/m, against roughly 22 kg/m for a 200 mm hot-rolled IPE beam. The lips on a C or Z section stiffen the flanges, and the design has to account for local buckling of the thin plate elements, which Eurocode 3 Part 1-3 (EN 1993-1-3), AISI S100 and AS/NZS 4600 cover. Z sections can be overlapped at supports to make the purlin continuous over several spans.
Most cold formed sections today are made from pre-galvanized coil (EN 10346 S350GD+Z275 or ASTM A653 with a G90 coating), so no painting is needed and the cut edges are protected by the surrounding zinc. Heavier sections and those for painting are made from hot-rolled strip. Light-gauge steel framing uses thinner, high-strength G550 or S550GD strip for studs, tracks and trusses.
In the Gulf the pre-engineered building (PEB) industry, which supplies warehouses, factories and logistics sheds across the region, is the biggest user: PEB makers and specialist roll-formers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE roll C and Z purlins and girts from galvanized coil, much of it from GCC coating lines. Light-gauge steel framing is used for villas, site offices, mezzanines and modular buildings.
A section is ordered by profile, depth × flange width × lip × thickness, grade and coating, length and hole pattern — for example 'Z 200 × 65 × 20 × 2.0, S350GD+Z275, 7.5 m, punched to drawing'. The section properties come from the maker's tables, because they depend on the exact radii and lip dimensions.
| Region | Standard | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Europe | EN 10162 CEN-CENELEC |
Cold rolled steel sections — technical delivery conditions, dimensional and cross-sectional tolerances |
| Europe | EN 1993-1-3 CEN-CENELEC |
Eurocode 3 — design of steel structures: supplementary rules for cold-formed members and sheeting |
| Europe | EN 10346 CEN-CENELEC |
Continuously hot-dip coated steel flat products — the galvanized strip (S220GD–S550GD) most purlins are rolled from |
| Europe | EN 1090-2 CEN-CENELEC |
Execution of steel structures — including requirements for cold-formed members |
| UK | BS 5950-5 BSI replaced by EN 1993-1-3 |
Code of practice for the design of cold-formed thin gauge sections |
| USA | AISI S100 | North American specification for the design of cold-formed steel structural members |
| USA | ASTM A653/A653M ASTM |
Steel sheet, zinc-coated (galvanized) by the hot-dip process — structural steel grades |
| USA | ASTM A1011/A1011M ASTM |
Steel sheet and strip, hot-rolled, carbon, structural — for heavier uncoated sections |
| Australia | AS/NZS 4600 SA |
Cold-formed steel structures — design |
| Japan | JIS G3350 JSA |
Light gauge steel sections for general structure |
| China | GB/T 6725 SAC |
Cold-formed steel sections |
Grade equivalents and the standards bodies: Steel grades & standards
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