Building lighter in steel

Building fast with great design freedom while having a low impact on the environment? Meet Finish Frame's steel frame building systems, a concept based on more than 35 years of experience in building with steel. The range of applications is huge and varies from facade modules to complete hall building skeletons with free spans of up to 24 meters. An interview with Finish Frame's construction project manager Dennis Eikenboom.

At the heart of the steel frame system are cold-rolled C-profiles that Finish Frame rolls in-house from strip steel. "The versatility of the profiles offers an unprecedented freedom of solutions," Eikenboom knows. Because the edge of the C-profile is additionally bent on both sides, the profile has a higher load-bearing capacity and load than a U-shaped profile. In the C-profile, Finish Frame then prepares all the necessary operations, such as processing screw holes, inserting bolted connections or installing cable grommets. This makes it a ready-made construction system that fully matches the construction report.

Finish Frame produces the C profiles in different widths and steel thicknesses, ranging from 1.2 to a maximum of 2.5 millimeters. The constant factor is the galvanized coating of 275 grams per m2. "Steel frame construction is often compared to timber frame construction," Eikenboom acknowledges. "But the differences are greater than you might initially expect. Because the steel frame system is fully prepared in our factory, including all machining, it leads to more dimensionally stable and stronger joints. It is an effective and shrinkage-free construction system, which is also much lighter than a comparable construction in wood. And because it is a galvanized product, it not only has a longer, but also a maintenance-free service life. The building system can also be disassembled, reassembled elsewhere or, in extreme cases, completely recycled."

The design freedom of the steel frame building system is great, as is the range of applications, ranging from facade modules to complete main supporting structures for homes, offices and even large industrial buildings delivered as a kit. Finish Frame's production environment is so automated that customers can control the machines themselves. "We have created a library in the various drawing programs such as Tekla, Strusoft and Vertex so that customers can draw with our profiles. The export file of the 3D model created is then used to control our machines," Eikenboom explains. "Of course, we also have our own drawing department that helps customers draw out the frames. That is also where our strength lies: thinking along with customers and projects to arrive at the best possible building system in steel."

Steel frame construction is a modern way of building, Eikenboom summarizes. "It meets the challenges of today and tomorrow. Delivery times are short and construction is many times faster. Those who still have doubts about any limitations in terms of design or freedom of form, we would like to invite you to 'get acquainted' with our Transformer robot, which is built entirely of C-sections." An object that also attracted a lot of attention at the 2022 Steel Construction Day.