Simpson Strong-Link

[XR250]

What's y'all's take on this...

F-L-SLMC24.pdf

ssttoolbox.widen.net

 

[phamENG]

Interesting. When did this show up?

Looks like a cross between an end plate moment connection and a bolted flange moment connection. Doing everything they can to eliminate welds. The connectors are interesting...'link stem'...are they cast steel? It's either that, or are they fab'ing them from large WTs?

 

[XR250]

Just showed up in my email. Can't imagine me using it for my projects as most of my customers prefer to weld on-site.
Is this useful or just another Simpson solution looking for a problem?

 

[EngDM]

I got that same email, and as soon as the page loaded I thought "they are trying to take market share from connections designers" and closed the page.

 

[XR250]

Well if JerseyShore can bill in Simpson Strong-Links instead of hangers, they may be useful

 

[driftLimiter]

Idk about wind design. But for seismic this solution is actually quite useful because it reduces the beam bracing requirements for IMF and SMFs. It makes it more practical to spec these frames in wood construction. The downside I have encountered is the drift is quite a bit more and sections end up getting pretty large.

 

[skeletron]

It's a cataloged solution that helps saves time compared to designing your own bolted flange plate moment connection. As discussed above, the reduction in welding and bracing makes this a pretty good case for residential wood. I think the WT's are matched (i.e. from the same lot or similar).

I had the opportunity to spec this one time in a fancy custom home. Simpson has a bunch of tools that integrate with analysis (Excel, SFRAME, SAP2000, ETABS, etc). They are a bit buggy, far from perfect, but at least get you in a good place. The detailing is kind of tricky because there are some A325 bolts and some A490 bolts, different plate requirements, etc. but it's probably no different than the detailing requirements for similar MF. Getting it on the drawing was tricky. I wanted to put the Simpson cut sheet on verbatim, but you actually have to go through it and cut the fat otherwise the contractor freaks out. In the end, the project went to a fabricator that was better suited for handrails. The detailer freaked out and thought they had to provide all the parts from their own stock. They did not realize it was an "off-the-shelf" solution (i.e. you order the WT's, bolts, plates from Simpson and coordinate with those pieces for hole locations). Then they changed the design to a field welded moment frame, got some other engineer to design and stamp the connections, and that was that.

I think it's a good solution but if you spec it communicate it to the subs/contractor, and also be aware that the supply of many of the fancier Simpson products aren't readily supplied to Canada.

 

[phamENG]

I could see this being useful in some situations. I'm curious about the cost.

 

[XR250]

I imagine it is way cheaper to field weld a moment frame than to use this product. At least in my market it is.

 

[dold]

Similar idea to a Kaiser Bolted Bracket. Its one of the prequalified connections in AISC 341. Simpson has all sorts of other moment connections for ductile mechanisms too. I've never specd them.

 

[KootK]

Once they'd brought the high seismic version to market, I imagine that it was a short leap over to the low seismic version.

The seismic one is particularly clever in that it operates on the same principle as buckling restrained braced frames. Have a ductile, spindly connection thing and encapsulate it inside of something beefy.

and also be aware that the supply of many of the fancier Simpson products aren't readily supplied to Canada.

Know if the system below can be got in BC? Andy Metten discussed it in a SEABC course that I'm taking presently.

 

[ANE91]

At first glance, isn’t this just competition for Sideplate? I’d be more surprised if Simpson got into the business of structural fuses.

 

[jerseyshore]

Well if JerseyShore can bill in Simpson Strong-Links instead of hangers, they may be useful

I tried billing in Simpson Strong Frames once and they almost had a stroke with the price so I dropped it down to CCQM's/hour.

I respect Simpson adding to their catalogs but the cost of those other products is usually absurd. The wood strong wall shear walls are usually the only "specialty" item I can ever convince someone to buy.

 

[driftLimiter]

At first glance, isn’t this just competition for Sideplate? I’d be more surprised if Simpson got into the business of structural fuses.

The seismic version is actually unique I believe in that the yielding mechanism is included in the connection elements. Sideplate and kaiser brackets still have a yielding beam element. For wind I can't really see why this is economical other than its easy to design.

 

[skeletron]

Know if the system below can be got in BC? Andy Metten discussed it in a SEABC course that I'm taking presently.

What is time exactly?! Fabricator balked at them and said they would be 6+ months to ship in. I called the rep directly and they said the YL4-3 could be trucked in from California in about 2-3 weeks. This was back in 2022-2023. I think this is pretty standard for a lot of the niche Simpson products.

I have no idea of cost (and that probably fluctuates), but it tipped the scales enough that the Client got the connections re-engineered (not by me) as RBS connections.

 

[Luceid]

From some limited experience - I have been around folks who were using the yield-link connection on SMF's in Southern California. During the design process Simpson seemed to be very responsive in a design assist manner, and a lot of the detailing work is done in the back end (similar to any other catalogued product. They have test data for connection rotational stiffness which is always valuable for SMF drift checks - which is part of what the integration into other software is all about.

Another note is that the building was risk category III or IV, so the idea of being able to replace the end connection after failure without completely replacing the beam was desirable to get the building up and running as quickly as possible. I don't have a good sense on the cost comparison unfortunately, but they did end up going through construction with them.