Abstract: A sheet metal bar member for use as a distance-keeping, stiffening and load-supporting structural framing element in heat insulating building parts of the general class comprising two panels held together in spaced relationship by a framing and having the interspace between them at least partially filled with a heat insulating material, said structural bar member having, between a pair of flanges serving as attachments for the panels, a web that is perforated by a great number of staggered slits arranged in at least four laterally spaced longitudinal rows, said bar member featuring slits bordered by stiffening edge portions bent out approximately at right angle from the plane of the web and additional stiffening formations between adjacent slit ends and adjacent slit rows to permit a minimizing of the thickness of the sheet metal used in the web of the bar member and, hence, also a minimizing of the heat conductivity of said web in the direction from flange to flange of the bar member for a given structural s