Intelligent Manufacturing System of LGS Profiles for Green Metallic
Constructions
Mihaiela Iliescu
1
a
, Marius Pandelea
1
b
, Maria-Magdalena Rosu
2
c
, Luige Vladareanu
1
d
,
Dragos Capatina
1
e
and Adrian Margean
3
1
Institute of Solid Mechanics, Romanian Academy, Constantin Mille 15, Bucharest, Romania
2
Department of Manufacturing Technologies, POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest,
Splaiul Independentei 313, Bucharest, Romania
3
SC Casa Metalica SA, Erou Iancu Nicolae 8, Voluntari, Romania
Keywords: Manufacturing System, Light Gauge Steel (LGS), Induction Hardening, Metallic Construction, Green,
Intelligent.
Abstract: The paper evidences research results on an innovative intelligent manufacturing process and its
manufacturing system. The metallic construction, based on steel framing and, consequently, on Light Gauge
Steel profiles, has got an increasing attention lately, due to their specific features that involve environmental
friendly building technologies, process efficiency and, last but not the least, relatively low costs. A metallic
construction has a steel framing structure, similar to that of wood, but is lighter and easier to build, not to
mention that it is recyclable waste. It is based on LGS profiles, that are manufactured by cold plastic
deformation process of relatively low carbon steel. In order to improve the profile’s material mechanical
characteristics, induction hardening process is introduced, distinctly, during the whole manufacturing
process stages. Thus, it is estimated a reduction of material consumption, about 10 % and, consequently, a
reduction of construction costs by 7%.
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3280-5933
b
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4670-0956
c
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-7060
d
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1745-2997
e
https://orcid.org/0000- 0001-9285-0093
1 INTRODUCTION TO LIGHT
GAUGE STEEL FRAMING
High industrialization and intensive use of natural
resources have caused severe climatic changes that
impact, not for the best usually, so many people’s
lives. Against this backdrop, there comes the need of
building constructions in a wise way, to be able to
have as much affordable space as possible in a given
perimeter, to be safe and sustainable, not to mention
to have as many recyclable materials as possible. First
in the USA, rather than in Europe, steel framed
construction has been and extended, so that, an
interesting and promising market is available.
Characteristics, benefits and limitation of this type
of buildings are presented further in this paper. Still,
the focus is on the research developed in order to
improve the mechanical characteristics of the steel in
profiles called Light Gauge Steel (LGS) profiles.
As mentioned in (www.designingbuildings.
co.uk), light gauge steel framing systems consist of
structural frames made of cold formed steel sections.
They can be used throughout a structure, including
load-bearing exterior walls, non-load bearing interior
walls, floor joists, curtain walls and roof trusses.
Factors that led to the use of LGS frames in
buildings (Yandzio, et al., 2015) are these:
environmental necessity to preserve use land; efficient
and sustainable construction process; adaptability to
provide more adaptable use of space.
Some methods of building light gauge steel
framed constructions are as follows: stick-build
construction, when discrete elements are assembled
234
Iliescu, M., Pandelea, M., Rosu, M., Vladareanu, L., Capatina, D. and Margean, A.
Intelligent Manufacturing System of LGS Profiles for Green Metallic Constructions.
DOI: 10.5220/0007832902340241
In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Smart Cities and Green ICT Systems (SMARTGREENS 2019), pages 234-241
ISBN: 978-989-758-373-5
Copyright
c
 2019 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

on-site; panel construction, when wall panels, floor
cassettes, roof trusses etc. are manufactured in a
factory and assembled on site; modular construction,
when units are completely manufactured in a factory
and, further, delivered to site.
Lightweight steel framing (LSF) constructions do
present many specifics advantages, as many
specialists mention.
For example, Claudio Martins (Martins et. al,
2013) emphasizes the thermal performance of LSF
elements (made of Light Gauge Steel profiles)
focusing on available strategies for the mitigation of
thermal bridges, such as: keep the facade geometry as
simple as possible; avoid the interruption of the
insulated layer; the insulation layers to be joined at
full length, etc.
The steel producer, ArcelorMittal (https://
constructalia. arcelormittal.com) states that the light
weight steel frame house is very efficient, from the
sustainability point of view. That is due to the fact
that steel is 100% recyclable and almost 80% of the
steel in construction comes from recycling.
Moreover, the structure is light and can be built on
less foundation on regular, or even, poor soils.
In the project Waste Reduction Potential of Light
Steel Frame Construction (WAS 003-003) there are
mentioned the principles of the lean process and their
impact on the waste minimisation potential of the
offsite manufacture, which are focused on the
manufacturing processes of the LSF elements for
walls and floors, as shown in Table 1.
A lightweight steel framed construction is safe in
case of earthquakes, usually in higher degree than a
common (wood) construction, due to specific features
as the ones that follow next (http://
www.steelframing.org/earthquake).
-Steel is a stable material with consistent chemical
attributes and once the steel stud has been formed, it
will remain straight with virtually no change to the
thickness, width or other dimensional properties.
- Steel frame is typically one-third the weight of a
wood frame and, consequently, damage through
"inertia" will be significantly reduced.
- Steel framing is impervious to rot, termites and
other pests that can slowly degrade the structural
integrity of the framing members, lessening the ability
of a house to withstand seismic forces
A study on the seismic behavior of the steel
lightweight structures, has been developed in the
ELISSA project (Landolfo R, 2018) . It is mentioned
that all the steel structures could be designed
according a DCL (low dissipative approach for low
seismicity zones) by assuming the behavior factor
equal to 1.5. Still, this approach may be restrictive,
since the lightness of lightweight systems also makes
them a good solution for high seismicity zones. Some
relevant results of this research are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Seismic behavior of lightweight structures. (Landolfo R, 2018).
Intelligent Manufacturing System of LGS Profiles for Green Metallic Constructions
235

Table 1: Summary of saved materials and waste generated. (WAS 003-003).
3 INTELLIGENT INNOVATIVE
MANUFACTURING SYSTEM
FOR LGS PROFILE
Lightweight steel framed constructions have as basic
element the light gauge steel (LGS) profile, usually
of C, or U type cross section. Depending on their
position within the structure and, consequently, on
its loading, the shape and dimensions of the LGS
profile varies – see Figure 2. For this research, it has
been considered of interest to study the C shape
profile, with 420 mm length – due to the high
loading stress when used in trusses and studs.
U / C type
LGS profile
300 mm
length
C type LGS
profile
420 mm
length
Figure 2: LGS profile type.
LGS profiles are made of steel with relatively
low carbon percentage, delivered as tape coil,
previously galvanized. Images of LGS profiles are
presented in Figure 3.
LGS
profiles
LGS profiles assembled
Figure 3: LGS profile.
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236

The basic manufacturing process for LGS profiles
is that of cold plastic deformation. Mainly, from strip
coil, in successive stages, starting from flat shape (coil
material) final profile cuts, wholes and side bending
are obtained. For the studied C type LGS profile, of
420 mm length, conventionally called C420, the
technological scheme is shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: LGS profile cold plastic deformation.
Figure 5: Control device for LGS profile.
Even if it is assumed that the geometric precision
of the LGS profile stands within the prescribed
tolerance, there has been designed a device checking
the resulting dimensions, shape and position of the
relative surfaces (after the cold deformation process)
of the profile (Figure 5).
This device is basic, either portable, or fixed, for
profiles not longer than 700 mm (420 mm being the
length of the C420) and fit for further automation
and computer assisted command.
As mentioned before, while being components of
modular structures in lightweight framed
constructions, the LGS profiles are submitted to
various loads (snow, wind, vibration, shearing /
compression / bending forces) and, consequently the
state of stress and strain is induced within its
material. Example of loads, stress and strains for a
truss made of C420 profiles is presented in Figure 6.
a. loading
b. von Mises stress
c. strain
d. deformed truss
Figure 6: Modelling and simulation of stress and strain.
Intelligent Manufacturing System of LGS Profiles for Green Metallic Constructions
237

Improving the LGS profile’s material mechanic
characteristics, so as to have higher tensile strength
and, when necessary, higher hardness, has been
considered of benefit for the complex process of
building metallic steel framed constructions. As
profile thickness is of low vaules (usually, about 1.0 
3.0 mm) and, moreover, the material’s ductility
should be maintained whithin reasonable values (to
avoid fragile failure) the induction hardening, process
has been considered and studied in this research. In a
real situation when the steel framing structure is build
for the metallic costruction, it is not necessary to
have higher hardness or / and tensile strength values
on all the profile’s length, just only on individualized
parts of it, where stress and strain values are estimated
to be significantly high (see the modeling and
simulation in Figure 6).
The device to be used for induction hardening of
the LGS C420 profile, has been designed so that to
enable (Iliescu, 2018) the following:
- adequate fixture of profile (without fixturing
deformation and minimising thermal deformation);
- motion of the induction coil along the profile’s
longitudinal axis – with variable speed;
- rotation of the profile around its longitudinal axis,
IF necessary for the thermal process optimisation;
- real time command and control of motions and
process parameters values.
All the above features of the device enable the
optimisation of the induction hardening process and,
consequently, required values of the thermal process
output variables (tensile strength, R
m
, and hardness,
HV) to be obtained.
Images of this customized device design for LGS
profile induction hardening are shown in Figure 7.
The induction hardening process, experiments carried
out in order to determine, by statistical methods
(design of experiments and multivariable regression),
the optimal process parameters values, are presented
in Figure 8.
Figure 7: Device for induction hardening of the LGS profiles.
Figure 8: Experiments on induction hardening of the LGS profile’s material.
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The complete manufacturing process of LGS
profiles, as previously mentioned involves the cold
plastic deformation process and the induction
hardening process. An intelligent equipment, that
enables integrated and customized building of the
metallic construction is Pinnacle LGS.
Assisted by the Vertex software, the complete
design and, further on, the manufacturing of LGS
profiles are done, as shown in Figure 9:
- architecture;
- resistance of the steel framed construction;
- optimisation of utilities’ (electricity, sanitary,
thermal) paths;
- roll forming manufacturing of LGS profiles,
according to all the optimisations previously set;
- estimation of all the material and components
consumptions;
- estimation of time for erection of construction;
- estimation of costs: overall and categories.
Figure 9: Intelligent manufacturing system.
Intelligent Manufacturing System of LGS Profiles for Green Metallic Constructions
239

4 MANAGEMENT
In the current market economy, the products and
services will develop in accordance with the client’s
ordering, therefore these will be individualized. In
this context, the approaches of open innovation and
product intelligence, as well as product memory, are
of outstanding importance (Roblek et all, 2016).
In the LGS production processes, we are talking
about smart manufacturing and smart factories.
Production processes will be intelligent, flexible and
dynamic and machines as well as the equipment will
have the ability to improve productions processes
through self-optimization and autonomous decision
making (Roblek et all, 2016).
Thus, production processes are optimized in the
framework of the Lean systems, resource planning is
optimized in framework of ERP systems, and
decisions are taken in accordance with the
customer’s requirements anticipation (Customer
Relationship Management CRM) (Nahmias, 2009).
The Lean system is a concept which is developed
on the basis on the total system approach for the
efficient optimization of all production processes.
EPR is a software system that is quite
sophisticated and difficult to use for identifying and
planning all the necessary resources of an enterprise.
The main purpose of this system is to coordinate all
the production and product delivery activities.
Cross-functional decision making is a software
solution that allows businesses to collect data about
specific customers and all the decisions are taken at
each level within the organization.
The four systems integration in any production
process is called smart manufacturing (see Figure
10). The smart manufacturing system includes
cyber-physical systems, the Internet of things, cloud
computing, and cognitive computing. The smart
manufacturing system will create what is called a
smart factory. Within the modular structure of a
smart factory, cybernetic systems monitor the
physical processes, create virtual copies in a
physical world, and decentralized decisions are
made. The Internet of Things (IoT) and cybernetic
systems communicate and cooperate with people in
real time through the Internet services, providing
added value.
Smart manufacturing combines various
intelligent technologies: nanotechnology, 3D
printers, mobile networks and brain research,
making possible things that in the past seemed
incredible. Now everyone has access to technology,
and if anyone has ideas, can create inexpensive and
fast products, in this mode the business model of
each industry will be changed.
In the framework of smart production processes,
each company can individualize its products
according to the needs of each customer in a
maximum efficiency context.
Figure 10: Smart manufacturing concept.
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240

5 CONCLUSIONS
As nowadays focus is on friendly environmental
constructions and technologies, steel framed
constructions have been and extended lately, so that,
an interesting and promising market is available.
Lightweight steel framed constructions have as basic
element the light gauge steel (LGS) profile, usually
of C, or U type cross section.
The basic manufacturing process for LGS
profiles is that of cold plastic deformation mainly
from strip coil, in successive stages. Improving the
LGS profile’s material mechanic characteristics, so
as to have higher tensile strength and, when
necessary, higher hardness, has been considered of
benefit for the complex process of building metallic
steel framed constructions. The induction hardening,
process has been considered and studied in this
research.
An intelligent equipment, that enables the
integrated and customized building of the metallic
construction is Pinnacle LGS. The presentation of
the manufacturing process of LGS profiles in the
context of using appropriate software and intelligent
equipment in conjunction with the smart
manufacturing concept, has highlighted the
efficiency of the production process, and pointed to
the customer’s satisfaction.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Constructii metalice ecologice si sustenabile prin
tehnologii eficiente de fabricare / Environmental
Friendly and Sustainable Metallic Constructions by
Efficient Manufacturing Technologies, TOP MetEco
AMBIENT, project no. 107/09.09.2016.
Casa Metalica – Romanian SME
http://www.casametalica.ro/constructii-case.html
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