Engineering the Future of Flooring: FRAMECAD’s Floor Cassette Testing Program
As part of FRAMECAD’s ongoing commitment to engineering excellence and practical engineering innovation, I’ve been leading an extensive floor cassette testing program. This work is focused on cold-formed steel framing, specifically, full-scale floor cassette systems designed to improve construction speed, material efficiency and structural reliability in mid-rise and modular construction projects.
Departing from common academic testing methodologies that evaluate structural components in isolation, and in reference to previous similar practical tests, I’ve taken a more realistic approach by assembling and testing entire floor cassettes under real-world conditions. This provides developers, manufacturers and architects with accurate insight into how these systems behave during handling, under load, and throughout their lifecycle.
Why I'm Testing Floor Cassettes
Testing comes under FRAMECAD’s development program umbrella that provides customers with an end-to-end solution for design, engineering, detailing, manufacturing and installation of a prefab flooring system.
The core aim of this test program is to better understand the web-crippling capacity and overall performance of deep cold formed steel channel joists, often referred to as “Deep-C,” when paired with load bearing rims.
Web crippling is a local failure that occurs in thin-walled steel members due to concentrated loads or reactions, typically at supports or point loads. It often raises questions from engineers and designers around the need for additional web stiffening at these locations.
Until now, most solutions have relied on conservative assumptions, often requiring added stiffeners, such as stud sections or steel plates, that increase both cost and installation complexity. Through this test program, we’re replacing guesswork with verified data to support our customers with practical design decisions.
Here’s how this benefits your projects:
- Avoid overengineering: Understand the actual capacity of each section.
- Design with confidence: Rely on tested, certified values for connections, spacing, and stiffeners.
- Save time and cost: Using FRAMECAD Steelwise to build smarter and faster prefabricated floors, ideal for high-volume or offsite construction.
What I’m Testing
We’ve built and tested a wide range of floor cassette configurations using 8”, 10″ and 12″ deep C-sections, focusing on performance under web crippling loads. Joists to rims connection types tested include:
- Stud sections with solid (un-swaged) web.
- Stud section with swaged ends.
- Stud section is attached to rim with tab stiffener.
- Bracketed connections.
These configurations help us better understand how the joists interact with rims and tracks, especially at interior and end conditions, where failures often start.
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A Global Vision
Initial testing has taken place in New Zealand, following the American testing specifications, with ICC certification currently underway. The vision is global, with Australasian regions next in line. Engagement with each region means working closely with the technical reviewing committee, addressing queries, meeting regulatory requirements, and revisiting details where necessary.
Subsequently, the testing program will expand further into Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Each region has different joist profile preferences, material grades, and design codes. We are committed to localizing data so architects, engineers and fabricators in all regions can access reliable, certified design inputs, promoting broader adoption of steel framing.
Replacing Timber Floor Cassettes
There is a substantial market opportunity for replacing traditional timber floor cassettes. which are limited by span capacity, connection reliability, installation speed, tolerance, and long-term performance. In contrast, steel framing with Deep-C sections offers clear advantages:
- Greater stiffness and span - ideal for modular construction and multi-story buildings.
- Faster assembly, less waste, less labour, accurate assembly, less bracketed connections, and lighter in weight.
- Greater design flexibility, including back-to-back or boxed joists with varying steel thicknesses and grades.
From Testing to Technology
Once certified, these results will be integrated into FRAMECAD Steelwise, offering automated, standards-compliant design guidance for engineers and architects. Currently, guidance on certain failure modes, such as tabbed joint shear or swaged connections, is limited. This testing directly addresses these gaps.
Embedding these results into the software simplifies the design process, enabling efficient, code-compliant, high-performance floor cassette systems without uncertainty.
Conclusion
This floor cassette testing program goes beyond basic certification, it aims to elevate cold-formed steel (CFS) construction by providing reliable, practical engineering data.
For developers, manufacturers, engineers, or architects, this initiative provides tools and insights for constructing smarter, faster, and more cost-effectively, using proven engineering innovations based on extensive real-world testing.
Updates and detailed results will be shared as the global rollout progresses.
