Office: 01423 855938 
Sarah: 07989 799761 
Stephen: 07901 594342 
Self weight of wall panel and pro rated fire rating now included in stud design 
We are pleased to be able to announce that we have released V2.3 of our Light Gauge Steel Toolkit for Tedds! 
 
The majority of changes are cosmetic, a few additional profiles maybe included and we have added a few additional features to the stud design. 
 
The 1st is a calculation of weight of a linear metre of wall panel based on height, top and bottom tracks, number of noggins (if required) and stud spacing. In short as user runs through and is unsure if 1.2mm gauge @ 600mm c/c with noggins @ mid height is lighted than 1.6mm gauge @ 400mm c/c with no noggins the Pass / Fail screen now advises!  
In addition to this we have also included – at present only one manufacturer’s details are included and these are based on data from the research that got us here with Northumbria University so NOT valid. More will be included to the data lists as and when manufacturers get on board – so please help spread the word and ask the manufacturers for the data so they can include. 
 
There is an issue, industry wide, where by ‘load bearing tests to EN1365-1 (as opposed to EN1364 for ‘non load bearing systems’) carried out by all test houses as best we can tell from asking them apply only circa 30kN per stud. When we as engineers calculate, under fire load factors, loads that apply more than the tested loads the test becomes invalid. Building Control and NHBC Building Control inspectors in particular, are aware of this issue and are looking for it! SCI are aware and are developing similar guidance. We were just quicker off the mark! This is ‘phase 1’. Phase 2 includes ‘better’ test data (hot and cold flange temperatures being measured as part of test then we will run a ‘hot’ stud capacity check at reduced yield strength based on how much the stud is deemed to be annealed from the test data. 
 
This is all based on pro rating the tested data from individual manufacturers at this stage. We believe that we can, as an industry, get to a stage where we can calculate these capacities in the very near future – this year. 
 
We are at the very start of a piece of research to re develop racking design using sheathing boards with the AMRC at Sheffield, Northumbria University and Leeds University funded by Govt and the Catapult programmes. This work will account for racking, fire, thermal, acoustic and manufacturability! The results will be found / included in future versions of the toolkit, along with an improved trimmer design using Tedds beam analysis pro forma’s akin to the breve / wind module we have now for those of you that have bought. 
 
Finally, we recently updated the web site to include secure ‘members only’ area’s and generally make more accessible. Future updates and training will be released via this secure area and you users will need a user name and password to access. Please contact us direct to set up access. We have also included in the web site a user feature request section. If you have features you’d like including – email us via the contact form and we will add to the list and prioritise according to how many users request and work load much like Trimble do. 
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