Originally Posted by SteveFehr
Originally Posted by renosteinke
Steel studs are not, and have never been, considered in the same category as structural iron - at least as it pertains to bonding.

Nor should they! The last thing we want os for somone to take the next step, and deliberately use them as a grounding conductor - as we already do when we bond a transformer to structural iron.
Metal studs may not normally be load bearing, but they're still structural and just as likely to become energized.

In many applications, they are load bearing. Why should we consider them differently from one application to another just because of vertical load? Loading of the members makes no difference to the electrons.



I truly hope that they are categorized differently because if not, they would be subject to 250.104[C] and 250.104[D],2 which would mean a bonding conductor brought back to the service entrance and could also allow metal stud walls to be used as a grounding electrode for a transformer, as Reno pointed out earlier, since there could be a separately derived system serving one area of a building.
The thin gauge stamped steel studs walls are held together with short self-tapping sheet metal screws and could be required to carry a tremendous amount of fault current under the wrong circumstances. This is not very safe or adequate IMO.