The Southern African Light Steel Frame Building Association (SASFA) is organising two one-day courses which will be presented on consecutive days from end May into early June in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. 

The first course is on the updated SANS 517: 2011 Light steel frame building standard and has been organised to assist designers, quantity surveyors, developers and other practitioners to understand and quickly implement the standard.

All facets of the standard will be covered by local specialists Anna-Marie Sassenberg of AMS Civil & Structural Consultants, Barend Oosthuizen of By Design and John Barnard of SASFA. The course looks at foundations and the materials used for light steel frame building (LSFB), the steel structure – focusing on the wall elements, as well as suspended floors and roof structures. Durability and corrosion will also be covered as will insulation and the installation of services.

The other course will focus on practical design aspects of low- and mid-rise light steel frame buildings and will be presented by Don Allen, a leading expert in light steel frame engineering from the USA. 

Quite recently, the outdated South African standard for cold-formed steel design was replaced by a new standard in which the SABS, in consultation with the Southern African Institute for Steel Construction (SAISC), adopted the Australian Standard AS/NZS 4600:2005, with minor modifications. The new standard was recently published as SANS 10162-2: 2011. 

Through the Steel Framing Alliance in the USA , SASFA has invited Mr Allen to present this new course to support the integration of the new standard into design practise. 

Previously technical director of the Steel Framing Alliance and the Cold-formed Steel Engineers Institute (CFSEI) in the USA, Allen has been involved in commercial and residential steel framing for the past 21 years. His designs include some of the light steel framing in the Georgia Dome and Atlanta Olympic Stadium as well as hundreds of steel framed projects across the USA. He has been involved in the development and testing of steel framed truss systems and has a special interest in the role of structural materials in sustainable development. He is a member of the Committee on Sustainability for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Structural Engineering Institute and is a LEED® accredited professional. He is certified by the Structural Engineering Certification Board of the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations. 

In this one-day course, Allen will cover the major aspects of the Cold-formed Steel Design code and highlight the framing specific codes in use in America. He will compare LSF construction with the alternative structural materials for low-rise building (timber and masonry) and will cover the general provisions for mid-rise LSF construction. He will also present several case studies illustrating particular design considerations. 

The courses will run in Johannesburg, 28 and 29 May, in Durban, 31 May and 1 June, and in Cape Town, 4 and 5 June. More details and registration forms are available on the SASFA website.