MiTek Announces the Hardy Frame® CFS Moment Frame™, the Industry’s First Cold-Formed Steel Moment Frame

MiTek USA’s Hardy Frame® brand now offers the CFS Moment Frame, the industry’s first coldformed steel (CFS) moment frame.

Built upon the success of Hardy Frame’s HFX Panel, the new CFS Moment Frame is the industry’s first cold-formed steel prefabricated moment frame.

The CFS Moment Frame offers very high lateral load resistance in narrow-wall or pier lengths, ideal for providing design freedom to create large architectural openings for moveable glass walls and windows. The “picture frame” iteration of this product – distinguished by beams at the top and bottom with moment connections at all four corners – is called the Hardy Frame® CFS Picture Frame™, and it is extremely effective in multi-story design and construction.

In either configuration, the allowable lateral shear value of CFS Moment Frames are approximately equal to four or five HFX Panels of similar widths. The CFS Moment Frame can also be installed “back to back” to double the capacity.

The lower beam in the CFS Picture Frame™ bears on wood floor systems and distributes overturning compression forces to limit crushing and reduce deflection, all in a wall dimension that is narrower and more-effective than multiple wood posts.

In addition to lateral shear resistance and distribution of compression forces to wood members below, when combined with the Hardy Frame Z4 continuous tie-down, the system will also transfer overturning and uplift tension forces that result from wind and seismic loading to the foundation.

The new CFS Moment Frame’s complement the other Hardy Frame Shear Wall Systems to provide a full spectrum of solutions.

“CFS Moment Frame fills a need for designs that require narrow wall dimensions along with the benefits of a bolted moment connection of cold-form-steel components,” said Jesse Karns, Director of Engineering, Lateral Load Systems for MiTek. “This is something no other prefabricated lateral system can provide.”