Z Purlins

[trence76]

Does anyone know where I can find manufacturers that produce Z purlins (Dietrich or Marino Ware?)? Additionally, I'm looking for Z purlin section properties and potential load/span tables.

Thanks for anyone's help.

 

[dcarr82775]

AISI has Z property tables, but no load tables. They give you capacities for bending and such but you need to do the leg work to get a load.

Other than that try Google. I know a company called Metal Sales has some load tables for Z shapes. I tend to do the calc myself as I don't always trust manufacturer's load tables.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

A lot them were proprietary and if they are out of business - you may be out of luck. I to have tried to analyze a few of them - with results quite a bit less then published. When I asked why - I was told that they used actaul testing to justify their results??

 

[SteelPE]

AISI is your best solution for loading information. Calculating Se for the sections is a pain because of the thin sections. There are some ways around calculating Se in AISI but you would have to get the book to figure that out.

You may look here but be careful!

http://www.loseke.com/lgsi.html

 

[JedClampett]

http://www.aepspan.com/files/BR150_CeesandZeesStructuralSec_1204.pdf

Good news-Lots of load tables
Bad news-Non standard section sizes and nomenclature. Not distributed over the entire country. Might not match AISI.
I went down this path recently. My advice is to learn from my mistakes and buy the AISI standards and design guides. At least you'll have the security of using the best reference available.

 

[j19]

Most, if not all, metal building manufacturers make Z sections, so look on the website of one that has a plant close to you. Because cold-formed steel design can be so finicky, it is difficult to publish load tables because of all of the quantifying criteria that would have to be added. Is the z-section unbraced? How far? Is it supporting a through-fastened panel? Is it supporting a standing seam panel? I would suggest getting the CFS software. You can download a free version from rsgsoftware.com that will give you the capability to calculate section properties. The full version will let you design the purlin.