Cold formed beam for structures and method of forming the cold formed beam

Abstract

A cold formed beam formed from a single sheet of steel having an upper member and a lower member (e.g., square, rectangular, other shape) separated by a web. The web may include stamped apertures and/or embossments around at least a portion of the stamped apertures. The cold formed beam may include beam connections that operatively couple the ends of the steel sheet used to form the beam to a portion of the beam (e.g., the web). The beam connections may by interference connectors formed from deformation of two or more layers of beam (e.g., clinching, or the like). Among other benefits, forming the cold formed beam from a single sheet, stamping of the web, and/or the using deformation connections (e.g., clinching, or the like) of the ends of the sheet allows for the pre-coating (e.g., galvanized, painting, or the like) of the sheet before the forming.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.