Hardy Frame® Moment Frame General Information

Hardy Frames, Inc. manufactures and exclusively markets the unparalleled Hardy Frame® Moment Frame (HMF) system. The Hardy Frame® Moment Frame is a state-of-the-art, pre-fabricated, pre-engineered moment frame system that is designed using new-generation SidePlate® steel frame connection technology to resist lateral forces resulting from high wind and earthquake loads. This breakthrough system allows the building designer to give their clients the open space and light they want with a structural system that exceeds the most stringent Special, Intermediate, and Ordinary Moment Frame requirements.

The SidePlate® moment connection utilized in the Hardy Frame® Moment Frame was conceived and developed by David Houghton, a licensed Structural Engineer with over 30 years of practical engineering and building experience. The connection has been used extensively in hospitals, important government buildings and other heavy steel frame applications, and is now available and affordable for use in residential and light commercial applications as the first pre-engineered, pre-approved, and pre-fabricated moment frame system. 

David’s vision in developing the SidePlate® moment connection was to develop a moment connection system that altogether eliminated the problems uncovered in ‘traditional’ moment connection geometries after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The bullet-proof performance of the SidePlate® system is now nationally recognized, clearly fulfilling this vision by being the first code-approved moment connection system to be prequalified by ICBO-ES, ICC-ES, and LA City.

Today, the SidePlate® moment connection is the only moment connection system that is truly prequalified, fully satisfying both the UBC and IBC for unlimited sizes for beams and columns, and for any combination of wide flange shapes and HSS tube sections, providing the flexibility to design a moment frame that fits inside standard 2x6 stud wall construction.