How do I find the weight per meter of a steel profile?
Steel Profiles
Every steel profile has a weight per meter (kg/m) published in its standard datasheet — it equals the cross-sectional area (in m²) multiplied by steel density (7,850 kg/m³). For example, an ISMB 400 has area 7,755 mm² = 0.007755 m², weight = 0.007755 × 7850 ≈ 61 kg/m. CalcSteel stores the exact manufacturer weight for all 1,140 profiles in its catalog (access via /profiles) — just search for the profile name and the weight appears in both kg/m and lb/ft. For custom or built-up sections, compute area × density. For thin-walled cold-formed sections, the weight is sometimes lower than area × density because of material loss in forming.
Key takeaways
- Weight per metre is just density times cross-sectional area: for carbon steel, mass (kg/m) = area (mm2) x 0.00785, using the standard 7850 kg/m3 density specified in Eurocode (EN 1991-1-1 / EN 1993).
- The figure is so fundamental that AISC bakes it into the section name itself: a W12x26 is a 12-inch-deep wide flange weighing 26 lb/ft.
- Published table values include root fillets and rounding, so an idealized sharp-corner calculation typically lands within 1-3% of the catalogue value.
- Section tables descend from physical mill catalogues like the 1872 Carnegie Pocket Companion, now digitized into databases such as the 1,140+ profiles inside CalcSteel.
Full guide
The Weight Per Metre of a Steel Profile
Step-by-step with figures and sources — 7 min read
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