“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” is an often-used phrase. Commonly attributed to Aristotle, these words ring especially true when examining the recent evolution of the AISI standards. Ten years ago, the AISI standards were compartmentalized into discrete packages on such topics as: general provisions, header design, truss design, structural wall stud design, floor and roof system design, and lateral force resisting system design.
Today, the landscape is much different for cold-formed steel light frame construction. Over the past several years, the AISI Committee on Framing Standards (COFS), with oversight from the AISI Standards Council, has worked hard to develop a “whole” document to cover the structural design of cold-formed steel framing. Released at the end of 2015, AISI S240, North American Standard for Cold-Formed Steel Structural Framing , represents more than the sum of the individual parts. In fact, one aspect is the brand-new chapter addressing the topic of quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA). This article explores the new standard, with special focus on these new QC and QA provisions.