Stud for fire rated gypsum board wall

Claim 1

A stud for supporting a gypsum board, hollow core wall that is fire rated for flame exposure from at least one side thereof, the wall being of the type that has a plurality of coplanar first gypsum boards of a first thickness dimension on said one side and a plurality of coplanar second gypsum boards on the side opposite said one side, said stud enabling said wall to be assembled from the side opposite said one side without the need for anyone on said one side, and comprising in a unitary integral sheet metal structure: a continuous flange, adapted to cover the joint between abutting board edges on said one side of said wall so as to lie in substantial contact with the outer surface of the margin of the boards adjacent the abutting edges thereof, said flange being defined by an outer planar element extending from one edge of the flange to the other and an inner planar element folded upon and beneath the outer planar element from said other edge to a medial region of the flange; a first web section extending normal from the inner planar element at the medial region of said flange to a first bend line disposed at a distance from said flange corresponding to the thickness of the boards on said one side of the wall; a plate section extending from said first bend line in parallelism to said flange and beneath the outer planar element thereof on the side opposite that beneath which said inner planar element extends to define, in cooperation with the outer planar element, a substantially continuous groove for receiving and retaining the edge of one of said boards of said one side of the wall, said plate section being disposed to reside on the side of said boards opposite said one side; a plurality of spaced apart tabs struck from one of said sections so as to be coplanar with said plate section and extend from said first bend line in a direction opposite said plate section to define, in cooperation with the inner planar element of the flange, a discontinuous groove for receiving the edge of the other of said boards of said one side of the wall; a second bend line parallely spaced from sAid first bend line at the end of the plate section opposite the first bend line; a second web section extending from said second bend line perpendicular to the plate section, said second web section terminating at an edge disposed at a distance from said plate corresponding to the thickness of the hollow core; and a second flange extending from last said edge in parallelism with said continuous flange for affording attachment of the boards that define the second side of the wall, the combination of said second flange, said second web and said plate section defining a channel section spaced from said one side, said channel section reinforcing said stud against distortion in the presence of an elevated temperature on said one side.