Saturday, July 16, 2011

Be Careful With Manufacture Storefront Design Charts

Design wind load charts put out by manufactures are usually only good for estimating overall span deflection of a mullion, and do not typically consider proper methods for stress design.

The 2010 Aluminum Code has new criteria for considering the unbraced length of open sections. The unbraced length for a vertical mullion is usually considered to be the distance between horizontal mullions. However, design wind load charts put out by many manufactures of storefront systems are often based on the assumption that the mullion has full lateral buckling support and an unbraced length of zero. How can this be?

I believe that the manufacturers are considering lateral bracing from the glass and the mechanical gaskets. However, after review of many industry specs it is clear that mechanical gaskets should not be considered as a means of lateral bracing for open shaped storefront mullions. Therefore, the charts error on the side of being too liberal. When it comes to the calculations, they can’t match up and the mullions usually don’t perform as well as the charts indicate.

Unfortunately, it’s in the interest of the manufactures to keep the charts the same because they are competing against one another for framing systems with the highest performance standards.

Glaziers should keep this in mind when selecting open shaped vertical mullions and stay well under the curve projections that are indicated. If glaziers use the charts, as is, reinforcing structural glazing or heavier mullions will likely be needed.

5 comments:

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  2. Hi.........
    Great post! Thanks you so much for the share. It is indeed a helpful one. I am looking forward of reading more article with the similar topic as this one. Good luck and More Power.

    Glazing India

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  3. Chaitra Glaze Pvt. Ltd. is a joint venture, Manufacturers the needs of Modern Structural Glazing and Fabrication assignments.

    Structural Glazing, Structural Glazing Manufacturers, Structural Glazing Manufacturers India.


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