Stainless Steel Profiles for Your Curtain Wall System

Over the last decades, stainless steel has been recognized as a versatile high-end material and became a dominant design element in an increasing number of building facade projects. To use stainless steel profiles as curtain wall structure is such a typical example in the modern curtain wall systems today.

The Aesthetics of Stainless Steel
From an aesthetic point of view, stainless steel is notable for its inherent beauty. Plus, it easily blends with other materials. It has a subtle sheen, which does not overwhelm or intrude on other design and colour elements. Instead, it complements, reflects and highlights surrounding materials.

The Glass Facade – an Eye-Catcher
Nowadays, curtain wall facades are often the business card of the modern buildings, in particular for some famous commercial buildings around the world. In other words, the lobby gives a first message of prestige to its visitors who are entering the building. Therefore, it is no surprise that architects and designers accurately select and define materials for these areas. Nowadays, more and more prefer using stainless steel for structural material in their curtain wall projects.

The Right Solution for a Prestigious Curtain Wall Facade
In a steel-glass curtain wall, the mullions and transoms must grant sufficient strength to support the load of the facade. The weight of the glass panels and the resistance against the wind load assure this. The more glass and less mullions contrators use, the more majestic and transparent the facade will result. In the current market, aluminum curtain wall system becomes very popular in building construction. And extruded aluminum profiles are the most common material used in such a popular type of curtain walls. However, they are not strong enough for such high span facades. Here the preferred choice clearly becomes mild steel, thanks to its three times higher e-modulus and for more prestigious applications stainless steel.

Stainless Steel Curtain Wall Profiles
The majority of curtain wall mullions and transoms are designed with a sideline of 50 or 60 millimeters. The depth, or height of the sections, results from the structural requirements of the building facade. The taller the facade, the greater the depth of the section and/or steel masses used in the flanges. The most popular mullion and transom designs used in steel-glass curtain walls are rectangular hollow sections (RHS) and stainless steel tees.
Stainless Steel Hollow Sections
RHS are a very common and functional design for mullions and transoms. Conventionally welded RHS have the inconvenience of rounded corners (with radius equal two times the material thickness). Laser welded RHS not only have crisp outside corners independent from thickness, but they are optimized to the required loads. Increasing the wall thicknesses mainly in two opposite flanges is relatively easy. Therefore, the majority of laser welded RHS used as mullions in facades have different material thicknesses in flanges and webs to increase the moment of inertia.