What is shear stud in construction?

They are almost never shop applied, because studs on the flange would block the deck from sitting flat and would get beaten up in shipping. The studs are field welded through the deck after it is laid, by the erector's crew or a specialty stud welding subcontractor, so at bid time confirm whose number carries the studs. Scope gaps between the fabricator, erector, and decking sub on this line are a classic buyout problem.

The deck goes down first so crews have a working surface, and the stud gun arc burns through the sheet into the flange in one shot, which is what makes production rates of hundreds of studs per day per welder possible. Through deck welding does carry limits from AWS D1.1 and the design standard on deck thickness and on galvanized coating weight, and the flange must be clean and dry, so wet or heavily galvanized deck can slow the work or force burning holes first.

Field inspection typically bends a sample of studs about 15 degrees with a hammer or pipe; a sound weld bends without cracking, while a failed stud snaps off and must be replaced with a new stud welded adjacent. Failure rates are low when the deck and flange are clean, but they are never zero, so most estimators carry a 2 to 3 percent allowance on the counted quantity rather than pricing the neat count alone.