Patent ID: 8453414

Claim:
A method for assembling a full-moment structural building frame from elongate columns having sides and elongate beams having ends, wherein connections in the frame between columns and beams are full-moment connections, said method comprising pre-fitting the sides of columns and the ends of beams with attached, complementary interconnect structures, including (a) column-side-fitted male cleats, and (b) beam-end-fitted female sockets, said sockets being complementarily fittable with, by reception of, said cleats, and by simply lowering a pre-fitted beam relative to a pre-fitted column, seating a column-side-fitted cleat in a gravity-locked condition complementarily received within a beam-end-fitted socket, and thereby automatically establishing, without using any additional structure, a full-moment load-bearing connection between the beam and column, whereby moment loads carried in the beam are transferred through the full-moment connection to the column.