FUTURENG - Light Steel Framing - Construção em Aço Galvanizado


	Futureng is an engineering company, exclusively dedicated to the Light Steel Framing (LSF) market. In fact, our experience started more than twelve years ago, with the very first LSF home built in Portugal. At that time, we were working in a building company that launched this system, unfortunately without any kind of support from suppliers or any Portuguese legislation concerning this kind of structures. So, our experience was accumulated from several travels to exhibitions and seminars in the USA, Finland, Switzerland, France, Spain and so on. We are members of the Light Gauge Steel Engineers Association since its beginning and we made arrangements for several meetings in Lisbon with Dr. Reynaud Serrette, responsible for the Light Gauge Steel Research Group, University of Santa Clara, California, USA, Mr. Havonen, from the Finnish software company Vertex Systems Oy, and Mr. Larry Williams, current president of the Steel Framing Alliance. Also, we worked in the extinct company Termo Steel, a franchise company, where we were the technical department, including our senior engineer. In 2001, João Santos, a professional with great experience in drawing, project and making quotations, and Engineer Miguel Sá, started the Futureng engineering office and invited Mr. Carlos Pereira for a technical and commercial job, to visit some of the Portuguese universities to speak about the LSF advantages. Also, we started this web site to inform the public about LSF. Now we answer to hundreds of questions about LSF every month. Few months later, some companies contacted us asking for help to start their own LSF projects. So, we decided to start a program of formation, from a commercial and technical point of view. That way, we helped half a dozen of companies to start or adjust their offer to the market. We also started an advertising process of those companies, displaying their works in our web pages. Then we promoted several meetings with all those builders and we proposed them starting a union between them. Of course, they all are competitors, however there are advantages in an association to seek for better prices, to make the system more uniform and to give the customers a warranty of quality. Unfortunately, they still are a small group and so the idea of a legal association of frame builders is not yet possible. So, with the agreement of all those builders, Futureng was designated to be the spokesman for those framers. We started the process of bringing to the group the very best suppliers and ensuring that we have in Portugal the best prime materials at the best prices. And we had success. We made an agreement with the major steel transformer in Portugal, Perfisa that has a great market in Spain too. Until that agreement, all the builders used non structural steel (DX51) but now we can design using one of the correct steel alloy, S280. It is this kind of steel plate that is approved by the Eurocodes. So, all the builders listed in our web site are using this high quality steel. Sadly, we know that a couple of other builders in Portugal, not related to us, are using a cheaper, not approved by law, steel alloy. Also, that supplier, Perfisa, has adjusted their industrial machines to make the correct C-shaped sections, with 90, 150, 200 and 250 mm webs. They roll form structural steel with 1,5 mm, 2 mm and 2,5 mm, and they have all kinds of profiles and accessories to the partition walls and suspended ceilings. They have this steel in stock and are capable of making deliveries to Portugal and Spain with a special price to those associated builders. So, we strongly advise the use of an approved steel alloy, with the correct galvanization, with holes and with the specifications stamped on it. The same happens with the structural cladding, the OSB, from Jular; fasteners and electric equipment from Hilti; interior insulation with mineral wool of Isover; and the External Insulation and Finishing System (EIFS or ETICS) for the exterior cladding provided by Robbialac, owner of the brand Cappotto. All these companies made an agreement with those builders listed in our web site to give technical support and better prices. That’s the advantage of working together. Someone may ask… what does Futureng get with all that work? Well, we hope to sell our projects, of course! However, none of those builders have any kind of contract with us, they only are associated because they see advantages in that union, and they use our services because they are convinced that our work is done by professionals who know what they are doing. Our engineering projects are, in fact, two. One is sent to municipal approval and the other is sent to the executioners, the framers. So, our project cannot be compared with any other engineer project who has less experience and does not give any detailed drawings. Also, we try to help all builders achieving better quality in their work and, that way, assuring that LSF maintains its good name. Any new builder had a five days seminar with us, and their first house usually counts with the help of other experienced builders as their subcontractors for the structure. For that professional formation, for an Excel based tool to help in the quotation process, for the advertising in our web site and to support all our other promotional events, the builders pay for the seminar and, a year later, they contribute with a small mensal fee. In a promotional effort, we make educational multimedia presentations at several universities like we have done in 2007 to more than 120 professionals and students in a seminar at the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, with the participation of the largest world’s steel producer group Arcelor Mittal. You can read more about this here: Constructalia web site. We will continue doing this work, at least until we all can have sufficient builders to form a professional association of Portuguese Steel Framers. All the Portuguese national territory, especially Algarve, is a very seismic risk area. Because market in the south, particularly the English spoken one, is now aware of alternatives in the construction, we are afraid that new builders with less or none experience, start to build with steel without using the correct building precautions for that seismic area. So, we advise anyone who pretends to build a LSF home to contact us and ask for advice to choose the correct builder.

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	In this page we supply some info about us for our English spoken visitors. If you have any doubt or suggestions, please contact us at info@futureng.com. Thanks.

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