Australasian Timber - November 2015

NOVEMBER 2015

PROCESSING • PRODUCTS • DESIGN • SUPPLIERS Incorporating Australian and New Zealand Timberman – Established 1977.

LEAN TIMES: LESS WASTE, MORE PROFIT HOW TO INCREASE RECOVERY THE FUTURE OF TIMBER BUILDING ALREADY HERE MARKET WATCH PAYS DIVIDENDS

BUSINESS PROFILE - AKD • ENGINEERED •

FOR FUNCTION BUILT TO LAST

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NEWS

Lean Times: how a timber manufacturer axed waste and grew profits Question: How can a timber manufacturer increase line production by 54 per cent in 12 weeks?

Answer: Lean up. Work out where there is waste; wasted time, wasted material, wasted resources and being excessive.

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HAT’S PRECISELY what Maryborough-based Queensland manufacturer Baywood Products did when they partnered with leading training provider Lean Skills Australasia. In less than three months, Baywood saw its process line capability increase from 9,700 metres of product per day to 15,000 – an output exceeding customer demand.

“We knew there was room to improve but we had no idea just how much,” said Baywood Operations Manager Jonathon Pederson.

“We started to seriously think about it in 2008 after market slowdown, that we really needed to speed up. So we set off on our lean journey and we continue to learn.

“Through Lean Skills Australasia three of our team managers enrolled in the Diploma in Production Management and the results have been incredible. Change has been fast and effective but no business is the epitome of lean, it’s a continual process where we will always be learning and there is no end game.”

Far from resistant, Pederson said staff were excited about the lean changes and concepts they learned via the Lean Skills Australasia program.

“There have been no change issues here whatsoever. All of our staff recognise that lean is a must for any business to achieve competitive edge, especially in a timber manufacturing organisation.

“We have fun with it and every Monday morning the whole team chants the ‘Eight Deadly Sins of Manufacturing’ which includes things like overproduction, over-processing and waiting. How many business leaders do you reckon know the 8 Deadly Sins? I’d say not many.”

Lean Skills Australasia The core idea of Lean Process is to maximise customer value while minimising waste. Simply, lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources.

A lean organisation understands customer value. The ultimate goal is to provide perfect value to the customer through a perfect value creation process that has zero waste.

Lean Skills Australasia was established as a consultancy in 2005 in Cleveland, Brisbane to provide “lean” manufacturing excellence programs and systems to the manufacturing sector in Australia and New Zealand.

The minds behind the operation are Bob Carter, Peter McGregor, Charles Adams and Carlos Aguirre. Bob, Carlos and Charles have industrial engineering backgrounds and are trained to design operational systems and sniff out inefficiencies. Peter has a background in developing leadership and cultural change programs, so he was an excellent fit.

Collectively all four have crossskilled each other and the result is that Lean Skills Australasia is now a leader in this cutting edge field.

“The whole concept emerged because we had a deep frustration with a lack of services in this sector to improve Queensland industry’s competitiveness,” Carter says.

“There is so much unnecessary waste going on, particularly in manufacturing. We could see so many opportunities to lean up organisations, improve efficiencies and help businesses reach their true potential.”

Lean Skills Australasia is built around dealing with what it calls the DOWNTIME model. DOWNTIME is a list of industry inefficiencies and how they must be dealt with.

Defects: Rework and Yield Loss. Get it right the first time, every time Overproduction: Why make more than your customer needs?

Waiting: For equipment, material, people and information Non-effective use of resources and talent: Create new capacity Transportation: Reduce the distance, time and multiple handling Inventory: Too little or too much creates additional expense Motion: Excess motion creates time delays and safety hazards Excessive processing: Why do more than the customer needs?

“Ten years on we’ve seen some extraordinary results. Baywood is an excellent example of how to do it in the timber industry,” Carter said.

australasian

magazine Incorporating Australian and New Zealand Timberman – Established 1977.

November Vol.23, No.7 www.timberbiz.com.au

¢ B aywood workers Ezra and Jamie machining 90 X 20 micropro pinewood decking.

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Continued on page 4 Postal Address: 630 Regency Road, Broadview, South Australia 5083 Phone: (08) 8369 9555 Fax: (08) 8369 9501 Publisher and Chief Executive: Hartley Higgins Suite 103, 486 Whitehorse Road, Surrey Hills, Victoria, 3127, phone (03) 9888 4822

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Conditions: Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the editor/publishers; information is published in good faith and we do not accept responsibility for damage which may arise from any possible inaccuracies. All rights reserved, none of the contents may be used in any other media without prior consent from the publishers. Published by Ryan Media Pty Ltd.

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NEWS

International News Briefs Australand rebranded

Diversified property group Australand will henceforth be known as Frasers Property Australia, following its acquisition almost a year ago by Frasers Centrepoint Limited (FCL). The rebranding marks the completion of the integration of Australand with FCL’s existing Australia business, Frasers Property Australia. The Frasers Property brand will be rolled out across residential, commercial, retail and industrial developments across Australia in stages.

Malaysia signs new timber deals with China MALAYSIA’S timber industry is set to further benefit from exports, thanks to a new partnership with China. A memorandum of understanding for higher cooperation between the two countries was signed

by Malaysian Wood Industries Association (MWIA), Timber Exporters Association Malaysia (TEAM), and Guangdong Timber Industry Association.

Ambitious plan comes to an end

Ballarpur Industries Ltd’s (BILT) decision to exit its operations in Malaysia brings the curtain down on one of the most ambitious overseas expansion plans in the paper industry, conceived about a decade ago. BILT, part of the Avantha Group, announced that its subsidiary Ballarpur Paper Holding BV has agreed to sell its entire 98% stake in Sabah Forest Industries Malaysia to Pandawa Sakti (Sabah) for $500 million.

Pandawa Sakti gets access to Sabah Forest’s plantations, a pulp mill of 240,000 tonnes a year, a paper mill as part of an integrated complex with a saw mill, and a veneer and plywood factory.

Plyboo on the move

Plyboo bamboo architectural plywood and flooring products manufacturer Smith & Fong Co. announced it is stepping up its operations and taking an active role in the Canadian marketplace, according to company president Angus Stocks. The expansion includes direct importation and warehousing of its products as well as new distribution and marketing representation. Founded in 1989 and headquartered in San Francisco, Smith & Fong Co. says it was the first U.S. company to manufacture bamboo flooring for sale in North America, offering its initial product under the brand name Plyboo in 1993. In 1996 the firm began producing bamboo plywood, followed by coconut palm flooring and plywood products in 2000.

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Past plays prominent role in present and future ForestWorks project supports furnishing skills development

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TREE planted in the grounds of Victoria’s Government House back in the 1870s is still managing to play an incredibly important role in the forest and timber industry. A portion of one of the historic plantings has been used to teach/train and tutor some of the next generation of timber and woodworkers and designers.

Two teams of students from Holmesglen Institute have been presented with the Minister’s Student Award for Excellence in Timber Design and Manufacture by the Governor of Victoria, Linda Dessau AM, and Minister for Training and Skills Steve Herbert, for the design and creation of a communal seat with ribs to represent the growth rings of a tree and a state-of-the-art lamp.

The award project, which was supported by the Victorian Government, was based on an initiative to utilise timber sourced from a 140-year-old hoop pine. The project is part of the program of activities ForestWorks is working on with Timber Training Creswick to take trees of significance in a community setting that are at the end of their safe life and transforming them into high value products.

A key part of the process is the educational opportunities these styles of projects can deliver, as showcased at ForestWorks Industry Development Conference in March.

The tree was one of the original plantings by William Guilfoyle, who laid out the Government House gardens during the early 1870s.

Like all living things, the tree’s life came to an end in 2013 and it was felled for safety purposes, leaving in its legacy a natural resource of high quality timber. The Governor of Victoria at the time, Alex Chernov AC, QC, recognised its value and sought a worthwhile use of the resource.

¢ R ichard Brooks, CEO of the Cabinet Makers and Designers Association; Mark Heydon, Director at Creative Framing; Michael Hartman, CEO of ForestWorks; David Baber, Director of Industry Engagement at the Department of Education and Training.

¢ S tudents from Holmesglen Institute who designed and manufactured communal seat, with the Former Governor of Victoria, Alex Chernov AC, QC; and Governor of Victoria, The Hon Linda Dessau AM; and Minister for Training and Skills Steve Herbert.

Michael Hartman, ForestWorks CEO, said initiatives like this were fantastic for supporting the skills development of Victoria’s future furniture designers as well as demonstrating the uniquely sustainable array of products our industry offers.

“What better use could this timber provide than to be used as a resource to train Victoria’s next generation of timber and wood workers and designers?

“It is an example of how one tree can be recycled, reused and redistributed in an eco-friendly and community minded way.

“Our communities have plenty of trees for projects like this across Australia, we just need our communities to value wood and see in trees a future beyond its old age,” Michael said.

The recovered timber was transported to the Timber Training Centre in Creswick where it was milled, dried and graded by students as part of their skill development, to enable it to be passed on to joinery and cabinet making students for furniture making.

ForestWorks managed the application process, where eligible applicants had the opportunity to produce a detailed design brief for a new timber product. The winning designs included a communal seat with ribs to represent the growth rings of a tree and a state of the art lamp. The design are now on display in Victorian Government buildings.

The culmination of a two year project to support the skills development of Victoria’s next generation of timber and wood workers and designers resulted in an acclaimed awards ceremony at Government House Victoria.

Continued from page 3

Lean Times: how a timber manufacturer axed waste and grew profits “Baywood is a company that is truly committed to achieving the highest level of productivity and they’re well on their way.

LSA is very proud of what Baywood has done.”

Carter said that lean thinking had experienced shifting levels of popularity since bursting onto the scene in the 1970s and 1980s. He said the approach was now enjoying a period of resurgence.

“The results speak for themselves really,” he said.

“We partnered with a New Zealand company, for example, and their production increased from 26,000 units a day to 33,000 a day within two weeks. That is an increase of almost 27%, which is extraordinary by any standards.

“But it isn’t just money and productivity. Being “Lean” will change staff culture for the better, improve leadership and, done right, can have a whole organisation invested in achieving better results – commercial and cultural. That’s invaluable.”

AUSTRALASIAN TIMBER

¢ S hayne working on the Hydromat infeed.

*The Diploma in Production Management, a nationally recognised qualification, is available through The Improve Group Learning Solutions (RTO #31506)

NOVEMBER 2015

www.timberbiz.com.au

PREFABRICATION

Prefabrication business opportunities

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ORGET ABOUT the ability to produce inspirational architecture or the environmental benefits of using wood, the principle drivers behind growth in construction prefabrication are cost and speed.

Reduced waste, reduced time on site, improved safety and the ability to employ advanced manufacturing techniques all add up to a reduction in material and labour costs and faster building completions. Less cost and faster return on investment for the customer.

However, before developers can realize the full economic benefits of prefabrication, the banks are going to have to come up with new financing models. Current financing problems are due to bank payment schedules relating to traditional, on-site building programs. There is a need for a new finance model that recognizes manufacturing program milestones.

The current trend towards multilevel dwellings taking precedence over single unit dwellings gives greater scope for prefab – particularly infill.

Rather than having trades on roads over wide distances, concentrating them in fixed, off-site locations could have strong economic benefits.

Andrew Neiland said Lendlease built the Forte building in Melbourne’s Docklands area based on a product model (CLT) rather than looking to capture all the benefits of prefab.

While wood is still a very important material, he sees that efficiency could be improved by laying in electrical wiring and plumbing in the factory rather than having the traditional follow-on trades on site.

Transporting complete modular buildings or rooms over distance has considerable drawbacks when it comes to maintaining structural integrity as well as the inefficiency of transporting air. This is further compounded by sites with restricted physical access.

Therefore, perhaps components in flat-packs might become an important sector.

There is a growing need for Building Information Modeling integration between design, manufacture and construction. And not just in 2D but full 3D to enable people all along the chain to identify how things go together or where there may be problems that can be fixed before they happen.

There is also a blurring of the lines between design, manufacture and construction. An example of this was the Timber Building Systems panelized system approach presented by George Konstandakos. This used Weathertex as the cladding and a post-tensioning

AUSTimber AUSTimber 2016 is the opportunity for demonstrating, discussing and dreaming up the technologies that improve productivity and sustainability in the management of forest products. Visitors will see the latest technologies in growing, harvesting and processing trees to maximize the benefit of the wood fibre and carbon they contain while minimizing waste.

They will also hear and see new systems, technologies and policies that employ advanced manufacturing to create new construction opportunities using prefabricated timber componentry to economically deliver high end architectural design. With this as a background, Laurie Martin, General Manager, AUSTimber Events Pty Ltd, has written this piece outlining the recent prefabAUS Conference from the AUSTimber perspective.

2. Commit to a long term, adequate and reliable supply of locally grown wood to underpin investment in global scale manufacturing operations.

Capitalize on experience While the auto industry may be a source of skilled advanced manufacturing managers and workers, these people need to be working in a lean manufacturing enterprise to fully capitalize on their experience.

Instead of that industry’s workforce migrating into timber manufacturing businesses, some auto industry suppliers could look at converting their production base into construction solutions. Perhaps it’s time for timber manufacturers to have a creative look at how they might benefit from an association with auto industry suppliers.

Rather than supplying complete buildings, might there be opportunities to manufacture components for builders to assemble themselves?

3. Commit to specifying prefabrication where feasible on their own capital works programs.

system for a two-storey office building.

After manufacturing the panels, their delivery truck driver, a qualified rigger, also did the rigging on site.

Given the more advanced approach to manufacturing and the opportunities attaching to employing technology, there may be good opportunities for clustering manufacturers. With about 97% of construction in Australia currently being traditional build, prefab

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manufacturers are really competing with traditional construction methods rather than other prefab suppliers so clustering may be a more economic path to increasing the technology available to manufacturers.

Victorian discussion paper The Victorian Government has circulated a discussion paper signaling its intention to become the premier prefab construction state of Australia.

It is unlikely it is alone given South Australia’s need to replace auto industry manufacturing jobs and the natural desire of governments throughout Australia to capitalize on the economic activity that surrounds construction.

There are key areas where governments can help.

1. In recognition of the need to remove carbon from, or limit the emission of carbon to, the atmosphere, government bodies at all three levels should adopt the sort of Wood Encouragement policies already adopted by Latrobe City Council in Australia and various government bodies internationally.

AUSTRALASIAN TIMBER

NOVEMBER 2015

4. Commit to investing in an affordable/social-housing program with a specific, substantial number of units that could underpin the development of economic construction solutions based on manufacturing scale.

At AUSTimber2016, we are planning a seminar program that will provide would-be manufacturers of prefabricated timber construction panels with information they need to consider when deciding what systems and technology they should be looking at.

One architect attending the conference said he understands the cost, time and quality benefits associated with prefab construction but now he just wants to find out where he can get that supplied. His point was the larger companies leading the way in prefab construction are either doing that with their own in-house design and production facilities or are developers using the services of such companies.

He just wants to be able to deal with a manufacturer who can help him deliver prefab projects on a scale of up to five-storeys. No doubt, he would also like to have a choice of manufacturers as well.

For more information: www.austimber.org.au www.timberbiz.com.au

PREFABRICATION

Prefab conference ignites future for the construction industry

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N ITS second year of hosting an annual conference dedicated to developing the prefabrication construction industry, the peak industry body PrefabAUS has provided a clear demonstration of the benefits that flow from adopting this highly-efficient and cost-effective construction method.

Held over a three-day period in Melbourne from September 14 – 16, the conference was opened by Lily D’Ambrosio, Victorian Minister for Industry and Minister for Energy and Resources. More than 180 people attended the conference and speakers from across all spectrum of the building industry from design, research, engineering, workforce training, sustainability and finance presented their interpretation of the prefab industry and their vision of the direction of the industry.

Damien Crough (Chair of PrefabAUS) said the industry was forecast to grow from approximately 3% of the annual $150 billion dollar industry to 10% of the total industry over the five years and that designers, engineers, traditional trades, suppliers and those involved in logistics would need to be educated and equipped on how best to prepare for impending change.

“Eighty per cent of all residential dwellings are prefabricated in Sweden, Japan 15% and Germany 10%,” said Associate Professor Tuan Ngo, Research Director at the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing of Prefabricated Housing, and that given 60,000 dwellings would need to be built in Melbourne and 80,000 in Sydney over the next five years, he said that prefabricated housing could efficiently address this need.

George Konstandakos, General Manager at Timber Building Systems, made the observation that it was easier to have a manufacturer build prefab than a construction company build prefab as they are used to implementing production and tooling methods to ensure consistency of quality and efficiency and that CLT buildings were four times lighter than a concrete equivalent and that fact alone drove efficiencies throughout the lifecycle of the building.

In Andrew Nielands’ (Head of Timber Solution at Lendlease) “Challenges of Change” presentation made the astute observation that, “prefab is the disruptor to the building industry”.

¢ Warren McGregor (CEO PrefabAUS) & Laurie Martin (General Manager AUSTimber 2016).

¢ D amien Crough (Chair of PrefabAUS), Lily D’Ambrosio (Victorian Minister for Industry and Minister for Energy and Resources) and Warren McGregor (CEO PrefabAUS).

¢ B rian McCarthy from Meyer Timber.

¢ Travis Hunt, Weathertex.

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>> Controllability & safety with features ¢ R obert Mansell - Hyne Timber Glulam demand Manager.

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¢ T im Porter (Holmes Solutions) and Peter Gransden (Modular Engineered Building Systems).

www.timberbiz.com.au

AUSTRALASIAN TIMBER

ALL ENQUIRIES: 1300 814 769 NOVEMBER 2015

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AUSTRALIAN TIMBER DESIGN AWARDS

Effusive in praise for awardwinning complex green design

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HE PRESTIGIOUS 2015 Australian Timber Design Award has been won by John Wardle Architects and NADAAA for the Melbourne School of Design, an inspiring example of complex green design.

The three-storey Melbourne School of Design is a showcase of the very best that can be achieved with structural timber. LVL engineered box beams and coffers span its 20 metre wide atrium, acting both as sun shades and structural restraints. Judges were effusive in their praise for the manner in which the timber framed and lined building envelope is suspended from two of the overhead LVL beams. Timber features heavily also in the decorative elements of the design. The selection and working of the timbers shows

exceptional understanding of the material and lends warmth to the complex structural design.

The Melbourne School of Design is listed as a Six Green Star Design and is the first education facility to be awarded the maximum ten Green Star innovation credits. Timber was critical to this, having been used to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the building.

Winners were announced on 18 September at Showtime, Melbourne. Many well-known individuals from government, the timber industry, and the design community were on hand to enjoy what has become the premier event in the Australian timber-design calendar.

And the winners are!

Overall winner: John Wardle Architects & NADAAA in collaboration for Melbourne School of Design - The University of Melbourne. Photographer: Peter Bennetts Peoples’ Choice Winner: Gehry Partners LLP - Design Architect and Daryl Jackson Robin Dyke - Executive Architect for UTS Business School - Dr Chau Chak Wing Building Photographer: Peter Bennetts Sustainability Winner: k20 Architecture for Port Melbourne Football Club Sporting and Community Facility Photographer: Peter Bennetts Small Budget Winner: Chan Architecture for Artist’s Studio, Thornbury. Photographer: Folded Bird Photography Rising Star Winner: Michael Moloney of Maloney Architects for Invermay House. Photographer: Michael Kai Excellence in Timber Design - Landscape Winner: MDG Landscape Architects for Armstrong Creek West Park and Wetland. Photographer: James Newman Excellence in Timber Design - Furniture and Joinery Winner: Fender Katsalidis Mirams Architects for Garangula Gallery - Furniture and Joinery Photographer: John Gollings Excellence in Timber Design - stand-alone structure Winner: MADE Architecture for Origami Pool House Photographer: Jamie Diaz-Berrio Excellence in Timber Design - Interior Fitout Commercial Winner: Cox Architecture for Box Office, Melbourne Photographer: Tommy Miller Excellence in Timber Design - Interior Fitout Residential Winner: Suzanne Hunt Architect for Bedfordale House Photographer: Robert Firth Excellence in Timber Design - Public or Commercial Buildings Winner: John Wardle Architects & NADAAA in collaboration for Melbourne School of Design - The University of Melbourne Photographer: Peter Bennetts Excellence in Timber Design - Residential Class 1 - Alteration or Addition Winner: CplusC Architectural Workshop for Dulwich Hill Residence Photographer: Jackie Chan Excellence in Timber Design - Residential Class 1 - New Buildings Winner: Duckbuild Architecture for Red Hill House Photographer: Peter Bennetts Excellence in the Use of Timber Products - Treated Pine Winner: University of Western Australia - Faculty of Architecture Landscape and Visual Arts for The Rose Photographer: David Byland Excellence in the Use of Timber Products - Timber Windows and Doors Winner: Schulberg Demkiw Architects for Beach Ave Photographer: Derek Swalwell Photography

¢ O verall winner: John Wardle Architects & NADAAA in collaboration for Melbourne School of Design - The University of Melbourne. Photographer: Peter Bennetts

Excellence in the Use of Timber Products - Timber Veneers Winner: TAG Architects and iredale pederesen hook architects, architects in association for Kununurra Courthouse Photographer: Peter Bennetts Excellence in the Use of Timber Products - Timber Panels Winner: H2o Architects Pty Ltd for Swinburne University Factory of the Future. Photographer: Trevor Mein Timber Flooring Winner: Baber Studio in association with Collins + Turner Architects and D’Occhio for The Charming Squire Photographer: Toby Scott Photography Excellence in the Use of Timber Products - Timber Cladding Winner: Terroir Pty Ltd for Clareville House Photographer: Brett Boardman Excellence in the Use of Timber Products - Recycled Timber Winner: Fender Katsalidis Mirams Architects for Garangula Gallery Photographer: John Gollings Excellence in the Use of Timber Products - Fitout Featuring Decorative Sliced Veneers Winner: Woods Bagot for Living Edge Showroom, Sydney Photographer: Trevor Mein Excellence in the Use of Timber Products - Engineered Timber Products Winner: Taylor Thomson Whitting & Jacobs Group (Australia) for ANTSO Building 90 Electron Microscopy Facility Photographer: John McRae

¢ Craig

Baudin (Fender Katsalidis Mirams Architects) and Michael Kennedy (MD Australian Recycled Timbers). Recycled Timber Garangula Gallery by Fender Katsalidis Miriam Architects Winner

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AUSTRALASIAN TIMBER

Excellence in the Use of Timber Products - Australian Certified Timber Winner: Cox Architecture for Box Office, Melbourne Photographer: Tommy Miller

NOVEMBER 2015

www.timberbiz.com.au

AUSTRALIAN TIMBER DESIGN AWARDS

¢ E xcellence in the Use of Timber Products - Timber Panels Winner: H2o Architects Pty Ltd for Swinburne University Factory of the Future.

Photographer: Trevor Mein

¢ Excellence

in Timber Design - Residential Class 1 - Alteration or Addition Winner: CplusC Architectural Workshop for Dulwich Hill Residence.

Photographer: Jackie Chan

¢ Excellence

in the Use of Timber Products - Timber Veneers Winner: TAG Architects and iredale pederesen hook architects, architects in association for Kununurra Courthouse. Photographer: Peter Bennetts

¢ S ustainability Winner: k20 Architecture for Port Melbourne Football Club Sporting and Community Facility. Photographer: Peter Bennetts

¢ E xcellence in Timber Design - Interior Fitout Residential Winner: Suzanne Hunt Architect for Bedfordale House. Photographer: Robert Firth

¢ Allison

Carmichael (AFS Director) and Ian Sutter (Cox Architecture). Australian Certified Timber Box Office , Melbourne by Cox Architecture Winner

www.timberbiz.com.au

¢ Craig Baudin (Fender Katsalidis Mirams Architects) and Michael Kennedy (MD Australian Recycled Timbers). Recycled Timber Garangula Gallery by Fender Katsalidis Miriam Architects Winner

AUSTRALASIAN TIMBER

¢ Stefan

Mee and Meaghan Dwyer (representing John Wardle Architects and NADAAA in collaboration) and Ric Sinclair (MD of FWPA). Public or Commercial Buildings Melbourne School of Design - The University of Melbourne by John Wardle Architects & NADAAA in collaboration Winner

NOVEMBER 2015

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WOODTECH

Tregoweth Sawmills increases recovery with new Goldeneye 301 Optimisation system provides outstanding functionality

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FTER OPERATING for almost three quarters of a century, R.H. Tregoweth Sawmills in New Zealand continues to focus on an operating edge. In fact, in the past decade Tregoweth has installed a full range of modern facilities, keeping the production site up-to-date on the latest timber processing technology to improve efficiency and customer service. The products include sawn timber, finger joint blocks, cut-to-length components, kiln drying, machining and chips.

In this quest for modernisation, General Manager Kevin Tregoweth contacted Kevin Everest of Southern Cross Engineering to visit and discuss the options for increasing recovery from their existing cross-cut line. As a result of these discussions, a brand new MultiSensor Board Goldeneye 301 Scanner was installed in April this year at its Te Kuiti site. The scanner application provides automatic quality grading of the lamellas by scanning all four sides in longitudinal feeding, in a single crosscut line from Dimter. The application is a full profile scanning and grading of raw lamellas for components and finger jointing, which are produced using sawn timber from pruned radiata logs. The in-feed and out-feed units of the scanner are provided by System TM. The boards are dry and planed and ideally possess clear wood sections.

“We are impressed with the grade recovery increase provided by the Goldeneye scanner and re-ripping application,” says Kevin Tregoweth.

The Goldeneye scanner features all state-of-the-art 3D board information from the different scanner signals and the equalised color map from the camera RGB signals. The detection of board properties and wood defects is implemented through computer vision algorithms. The real time visualisation of the detected board properties and wood defects is managed by high-speed data transfer to the optimisation process.

The Goldeneye-301 optimisation system provides outstanding functionality such as the acquisition of

radiata pine board properties and wood defects, like knots, bark, cracks, resin pockets, wane, damaged edges, glue and brown stain etc., including their relative positions on the board. The optimisation maximises the value of the obtainable product by considering all possible combinations from the active product list.

“Within a range of 200km, MiCROTEC on the North Island of New Zealand has installed seven Goldeneye Multi-Sensing Scanners, which is a great milestone for us,” said MiCROTEC CEO Federico Giudiceandrea.

R. H. Tregoweth Ltd was first established in Te Kuiti in the 1940s as a native timber sawmill by Richard H. Tregoweth who is the grandfather of the present General Manager, Kevin Tregoweth, in the privately-owned, family-run business.

Today, R.H. Tregoweth Ltd. are millers, processors and exporters of quality New Zealand timber, dedicated to serving both the domestic and export market with sustainable radiata pine.

Range of applications Radiata is appreciated for its wide range of applications. While obviously suitable for lower grade applications including construction, panelling, pulp/ paper products, pulpwood, fibre board, MDF, and plywood veneers, it is also

being utilised as a higher grade timber for furniture, veneers and mouldings.

Radiata Pine is an extremely versatile timber species that, when processed correctly, can be used in almost every timber application.

It’s suitable for construction and a large range of other applications, including furniture. This is a result of its excellent gluing, nailing and machining characteristics.

Log supplies are sourced in New Zealand from sustainable Radiata Pine forests in the central North Island and the east coast.

Quality and value “By focusing on this niche market we are able to deliver top value and quality to our customers,” explains Kevin. “We supply timber to companies throughout New Zealand and also export to Australia, the US and other parts of the world. We can provide from clear timber to industrial grades in a variety of sizes.”

Due to the growing environmental awareness of customers, R.H. Tregoweth Ltd has become FSCTM certified.

The New Zealand Pine is a species of pine called Radiata, also known as Monteray or Insignis Pine. Radiata Pine is a fast-maturing and adaptive softwood native to the United States. Since its introduction in New Zealand in the 1950s, it has become a popular softwood throughout the southern hemisphere with significant concentrations in New Zealand, Australia, Chile, and South

¢ T he Multi-Sensor Quality Scanner increases lumber utilisation featuring next generation technology.

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Africa. New Zealand and Chile lead in Radiata growth with about 2 million hectares (5 million acres) of plantation forests, with large logs of up to 80cm diameter and growing cycles of 25 to 30 years.

¢ G oldeneye 300 offers the best value and performance for chip processing and sorting.

AUSTRALASIAN TIMBER

NOVEMBER 2015

www.timberbiz.com.au

WOODTECH

Wood - are we marketing it or just selling it?

A

RE WE really marketing wood or just selling it? That was a key question by Rob de Fégely, Director of Margules Groome Consulting and President of the Institute of Foresters of Australia, to the FIEA WoodTECH Conferences in Melbourne and Rotorua.

“Great wood takes anywhere from 10 to 100 plus years to grow and when well managed not only is its yield sustainable in perpetuity but it is one of the most environmentally friendly products we can use to meet human demands for construction material.

“However, I seriously question whether we value it properly,” he told delegates to the special event.

“Commercial tree planting has all but stopped in both Australia and New Zealand. There has been no expansion in long rotation softwood planting for the last 25 years in Australia and similarly for the last decade or so in New Zealand.

“In my opinion this is a very strong market signal that the market price for growing wood is just too low,” Rob said.

“Perversely the demand for wood products in Asia is set to increase and as the new Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull stated after his recent election, “Australia is in a lucky position to benefit from the growing demand for products in Asia”.

Rob said China would be the main demand driver for wood products in the coming decade but India could well be a surprise, particularly if Indian Prime Minister Modi can achieve his aims of economic development and the upgrading and construction of new infrastructure, particularly ports and roads. “Plus our long term trading partners in Japan, the Republic of South Korea and Taiwan will also have strong demand and these countries will also be significant.

“Plus the domestic markets in Australia and New Zealand also represent great opportunities for sawn timber for dwelling construction,” he pointed out.

While residential construction consumes 80% of the volume of finished wood products in Australia the

¢ R ob de Fégely, Director of Margules Groome Consulting and President of the Institute of Foresters of Australia.

commercial market only utilises 20% of our wood products. According to Wood Products Victoria every one percent gain in market share of the commercial market could result in an additional $50 million in new wood product sales.

“Townhouses and multi-storey apartments are increasing their share of annual dwelling commencements and are predicted to be 50% of all new

housing starts in the near future. This market represents a great opportunity for wood products and we need to embrace it,” Rob said.

But he also pointed out that increasing wood’s share of the commercial construction market would require industry to change the way it presents its wood products to the building industry.

“The commercial sector wants construction solutions like drop-in cassette flooring modules, cross laminated panel wall framing or modular wall and roof trusses. It is all about building systems where uniformity is the key! This will require a collaborative approach as we need standardised systems that provide confidence to the commercial construction sector.

“In simple terms the commercial sector wants us to sell them quality engineered solutions and not just packs of timber. The system and the solution can often be more important than price,” he said.

“Many people have told me that sawn timber is just a commodity and so we have to accept the price that we are given!

“I don’t believe this,” said Rob. “Water is a great example of why this is wrong. It is a commodity that has been in our lives for as long as wood. The cost of a glass of water in a restaurant or cafe is generally free or if deeply analysed it would be point something, something of a dollar per glass. Water sold in a plastic bottle which is often drawn from the same source sells for six dollars a litre or over four times the price of petrol!

“The gap in price is purely marketing and what an industry bottled water has become.

“Whereas selling water from the mains, well that is just selling!

“If we can succeed in marketing wood for all its environmental values then we may be able to increase investment in new plantations and also do more with our natural forests which may also allow us to meet some of the new and exciting demand for wood products in our region,” Rob told delegates.

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11

WOODTECH

Record numbers attend WoodTECH in Australia and New Zealand

F

IEA’s WoodTECH conference series really struck a chord with sawmillers and technical staff on both sides of the Tasman. A record turnout of over 350 delegates from sawmilling companies and leading technology providers from throughout Australasia, North America and Europe converged on Melbourne and again in Rotorua.

As well as innovations around sawing and wood scanning systems, case studies of companies investing and bedding in some of this new equipment was a key focus for the events this year. There was also a much greater emphasis on the practical issues around selecting, installing, commissioning and running saws. Renowned sawmilling experts from around the world led sessions on how saws within the mill are best aligned, maintained and operated to improve both sawing performance and a mill’s productivity.

Some of the trends being projected for future sawmilling by Ron McGehee were; simpler, high production mills with reduced manufacturing cost will replace complex mills, single pass sawmills will become more commonplace, high speed

¢ Adrian Yoeman from Andritz.

12

4 sided canters with multiple profilers and vertical arbor gangs are expected to process the majority of the wood under 400mm in diameter and high speed edgers will increasingly be replaced with high speed board profiling.

Technology wasn’t the only emphasis for this year’s WoodTECH. For the final session on both days the FIEA team turned the emphasis onto the most important resource – the human factor.

On hand to look deep inside the subject of peoples’ performance was a novel keynote speaker from British Columbia, Steven Falk (photo). Steven’s expertise is all about getting the most out of every member of your team.

Across BC, Steven uses his ‘Switchback’ system with people from all walks of life to help build better teams. He and his team of facilitators have gained a reputation for listening to people and helping them to change. Their techniques have helped people go from non-communicative into top-performing team members. As a result they’ve been making huge improvements among teams working in mills and forests throughout western Canada.

¢ G eoff Strang, Jonathan McLachlan and Darren Ousey from Skookum with Harry Penn from USNR.

¢ Sami-Petteri Helminen and Peter Haintz from HewSaw.

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SAWMILLING

Noticeable increase in knife life

C

RAIGPINE TIMBER is regarded as one of the giants of the New Zealand timber industry and first class machinery, a good work ethic and careful planning are among the keys to its success since being established in 1923.

Craigpine supplies branded New Zealand Pine to both world and domestic markets.

On the machine front, Damian McNaught, Engineering Maintenance Planner at Craigpine, is quick to highlight what is utilised.

“We first started using the Andritz Iggesund Tools TurnKnife® System at CraigPine back in August 2011 with the installation of a PowerHead on our Slabber.

The difference was like day and night over the old conventional knife system that we were running as the knife life went from 10 hours per knife edge up to 30 – 40 hours per knife edge.

“There were also gains in surface finish as the face knives on the PowerHead produced a better surface finish than we were getting from our face saw setup on the old slabber head and there was a noticeable increase in chip quality coming from the PowerHead,” said Damian.

“In March 2012 we converted our sawmill chipper to the Andritz Iggesund Tools TurnKnife® System with HFT Wear Plates. Once again there was a very noticeable increase in knife life as we were changing our conventional knives every 10 hours and with the TurnKnife® System we are able to get 30 plus hours per knife edge. The added bonus was that we were able to remove the knife grinder from the saw shop altogether as there is no grinding or babiting required with the TurnKnife® System.

“In November 2013 we went onto the PartnerChip® Lease Agreement with Andritz Iggesund Tools and we have not looked back as the PartnerChip® Lease Agreement gives us a lower running cost, a fixed known cost per month along with plenty of parts at our site so that we never run low.

“With all the benefits mentioned plus a full service plan in place that is performed every three months, technical assistance 24/7, along with a safer working

environment due to the lighter knives, lower torque requirements on the knife bolts and fewer knife changes required, the TurnKnife® System is a real winner,” he said.

And across the Tasman the story is the same.

Bill Stuckey, from CHH Tumut, is another who is high in praise.

“We have been running four knife PowerHeads on our secondary reducer band saw for about eight years and are on our second set of heads.

“We also run a turn knife system in our Acrowood slant chipper and find the following benefits of this product: Ease and speed of knife changes. One person job, knives are light and easy to handle.

Double knife life of regular knives.

Long tool life of wear parts with tungsten coating, all parts are manufactured to high quality standards.

Very good and repeatable finish on boards.

Consistently produces target spec chip.

Excellent after sales support and knowledge from Adrian (Yeoman at Andritz Iggesund Tools) and his team.”

TurnKnife System with Helical Face Technology Wear Plates ®

Follow Craigpine’s Lead

Since Installing the new TurnKnife® system with Helical Face Technology (HFT) Craigpine has seen:

•Consistant and Improved Chip Quality •Improved Safety, Elimination of Knife Grinding from the Sawshop •Longer Run Times Between Knife Changes And these are just a few of the advantages that Craigpine has seen.

If you are interested in learning more about the new TurnKnife® system with Helical Face Technology (HFT) and how we can help to reduce your running costs, then talk to us today.

www.iggesundtools.com Adrian Yeoman, Customer Service Manager, Australia & New Zealand ANDRITZ Pty Ltd • PO Box 7201, Rotorua, New Zealand • Tel: +64 29 77 77 177

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NOVEMBER 2015

13

CLT HOUSE FEATURE

A European model in Australia

I

N THIS instance we’re not talking about Heidi Klum on a trip to Australia’s Fashion Week, we’re talking about a totally different type of model. This model is a choice to build a residential property using a mode that is not typically Australian, a mode that has yet to be recognised as an option let alone a viable alternative.

Anna Swadling and husband Chris chose to build a house with CLT. “We chose to go with the CLT to complement the recycling that we were going to showcase in our home,” Anna said.

“Chris owns a timber mill and timber

is our preferred choice of product so that’s why we decided to give it a go.”

That was just one of many reasons the Swadlings chose CLT, another was environmental concerns.

“Carbon storage is very important to us and timber is the ultimate storer of carbon so that was another reason,” Anna explained.

Chris had been to timber conventions in Germany and as we know CLT has been used for years overseas.

As Anna said, we are quite a bit behind in Australia.

Chris discovered CLT while overseas and was very impressed by

its properties – it is fire retardant, it can stand quakes, provides insulation for temperature and noise control, and promotes efficiency in construction. He returned home very excited and said let’s do it.

The hurdles “A major hurdle from the very beginning has been working with a little known product, finding an architect, engineers and builders who were willing to work with it was quite tricky because it was an unknown material,” Anna said.

“We also wanted to find people who were passionate about it as well.

“We looked at lots of architects to find one who was affordable and excited about the potential of CLT.” They handed over the project to architect Shaun Thodey of Thodey Design. That was pretty important but as the build progressed what turned out to be of vital importance was a good engineer.

Their engineer, Andrew Hastie of ACOR Consultants, turned out to be an invaluable source of information and assistance for the Swadling’s builder – Richard Wolak of Select Building - who hadn’t worked with CLT before. This isn’t surprising as it would be hard to

Everything old is new again REVIVING SOME things is easier than others. Let’s say wearable fashion ... there’s no rocket science to remaking a dress from the 1900s but reviving timber from that era is very much harder. But that’s what Ironwood Australia does – it recycles old timber into flooring, decking, posts, beams, stairs and furniture.

Ironwood Australia with Chris Swadling at the helm has moved the company, which was formerly Rozelle Recycled Building Centre, into the new millennium with a wide range of recycled timber products that are produced with the help of the company’s own mills near Taree. One mill is for recycled product the other for cutting green timber.

What most people see when they look at recycled timber is that beautiful rich lustre, the earthy tones and solid qualities but they rarely see that it is 14

stronger and better quality than new timber, plus timber has much better environmental credentials.

Ironwood’s products are recycled and reclaimed Australian hardwood timbers milled to size and finished with a range of finishes from wire brushing to rough sawn to Dressed All Round (DAR).

Unlike new timber, resawn old timber will remain straighter because it has been in place a long time and it has been air dried and seasoned. It is a stable building material.

Chris is one five generations of timber workers with both parents in the industry, and the family links go back as far as the early 1900s when Chris’ great grandfather operated a timber yard in Sydney’s inner west.

Chris, together with wife Anna, have a real passion for using ecofriendly timber, searching out

regrowth forest timbers and recycling rare Australian hardwood timbers then passing them on for use in commercial and residential properties.

Finding the timber is a tough call because it can be hidden away supporting the roof of old factories or holding up a bridge and it’s even harder to disassemble because a lot of care has to go into that so that the finished product is perfect.

A lot of work is manual and time consuming, for example each beam has to be de-nailed manually, dried, cut, its top is stripped and then the timber is dried again - the whole process can take many months but it’s worthwhile as the finished product is stunning.

As they say, though, looks aren’t everything and Chris has said that an outstanding feature of recycled timber is that it is old wood that comes from trees that were slower growing than

AUSTRALASIAN TIMBER

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those today and those trees had been growing for a longer time. Some of the timber was originally felled 200 years ago from trees that had already stood for 300 or 400 years.

However, it’s not just about old or recycled timber, Ironwood also uses new timber taken from regrowth forest and when the occasion arises the company also recovers timber from forests where there has been damage such as drought or fire. The company has two NSW Government contracts, one with Roads and Maritime Services the other with NSW Forestry, to recycle hardwood timbers.

Ironwood has also developed its own engineered wood products to compete with imported English Oak and American Oak and is now working and gaining experience with CLT products in an Australian environment.

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CLT HOUSE FEATURE find a residential builder in Australia that had experience using the product.

But with Hastie’s engineering knowledge the Swadlings were able to work their way through any problems or issues that cropped up.

“We probably over specified but with an unknown material that was bound to happen, but better to over specify than to under specify,” Anna said.

“We choose builders we knew who were very professional, and again not experienced with CLT but willing to learn and have a go at it.

“There were lots of phone calls between ourselves, and the builders, and engineer.

“And lots of phone calls to the CLT manufacturer (XLam) in New Zealand.”

Being behind the eight ball with CLT in Australia also led to a few unusual problems, such as finding the right fixings for the job some of which had to be sourced from overseas.

“We had to get proper screws, huge screws, and some had to be imported from Italy,” Anna said.

Communication was so important in a job where the material and methods are new and different everyone had to be on the same page to make it work.

“Quickly we discovered that the architectural plans needed reworking in order for the CLT to work,” Anna said. “So we had to re-look at that as well.

“There were hurdles but we managed to overcome them.”

Xlam CLT specialists XLam NZ Ltd is a company owned by Robin and Ian Jack that is bringing the benefits of cross laminated timber to the New Zealand and Australia construction industry.

Planning for the venture started in 2010 and XLam NZ Ltd was incorporated in April 2011.

XLam is the only manufacturer of cross laminated timber in the Southern Hemisphere.

Plans are already underway to expand CLT production in New Zealand and into Australia to meet increasing market demands. The installation of a second press at the New Zealand plant in Nelson will see CLT capacity double.

The first Australian order for a building in Sydney was shipped July 2015 for the Swadling project and weekly shipping services direct from Nelson to Australian ports will enable supply to other Australian projects while plans are well underway to establish an Australian plant.

This is very exciting news for the timber industry in New Zealand and Australia.

Rapidly increasing demand for CLT has required the acquisition of more manufacturing space at the Nelson XLam plant.

During July, XLam moved its finger-joining and planing operations to an adjacent building, freeing up more area for the installation of a second press.

This move is part of an ongoing development plan to improve production flow and increase manufacturing capacity to serve the market in both New Zealand and Australia.

CLT projects now in manufacture or under construction include: Backpacker hostel in Bealey Avenue, Christchurch by RM Designs and currently being built by Falcon Construction.

Studio in Tasman, Nelson designed by Tennant and Brown.

Residential apartments in Salisbury Street, Christchurch designed by Warren and Mahoney, built by Summitbuild.

The company offers pre-design, concept design, costing, drawing and building consent assistance for projects using CLT. ¢ Xlam: Robin Jack pictured at www.xlam.co.nz FRAME Australia.

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15

CLT

CLT – The future of timber buildings is already here

W

ITH INCREASING interest in innovative and efficient timber buildings, WME will keep subscribers informed about the latest developments on engineered wood products, panels, structural components and more.

At the recent ‘Timber opportunities in the mid-rise market Symposium’ a topic of interest was the use of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) in Australia and the prospects of this versatile engineered material in new mid-rise buildings.

With the live example of Lend Lease’s Forte Building and the Docklands Library (that accommodated the workshop), complemented by strong messages that buildings built with CLT are either on the architect’s table and/or in various stages of approvals, or close to being built.

For the last couple of years, relatively significant resources from FWPA, academia and other interested parties have been engaged to provide an overview on the current situation and the prospects of advancing the use of CLT in Australia. Much of the focus has been on the development and innovation of the Australian wood products industry, to a level enabling it to offer advanced building systems to the sectors it is servicing.

The date is still in its infancy, but is heading toward commercialisation, in some form.

Various factors affect the uptake of CLT and investment into the establishment of a domestic production facility. These include: • Predominantly social and cultural pre-concepts working against a larger acceptance of prefabricated engineered timber for multi-storey apartment living; • Lack of information on the associated costs (design, approvals, testing, construction, operations and maintenance); • Lack of suitable building standards.

• Less than three years on from the initial Australian development and we are contemplating interesting developments around this industrial sector, with examples arriving from all corners of the world: • Important investments in CLT

t a glance A Tim Woods is Managing Director of IndustryEdge, Australia’s leading market analysis firm in the forestry and wood products sector. The firm is publisher of the monthly Wood Market Edge and the biannual Forest & Wood Strategic Review.

The 2015 edition of the Strategic Review has just been released. Go to www.IndustryEdge.com.au or call +61 3 5229 2470.

• • • • •

•

processing around the world – Japan, USA, Russia (including proposed investments in Australia).

Nonetheless, currently the centre of gravity for CLT remain Austria and Germany, which combined are producing approximately 90% of European production as the chart ‘CLT Producing Countries’ shows.

Building standards able to accommodate the use of CLT being updated and/or adapted; Demonstration projects being erected in various places around the world (including Australia); National timber building programs established around the world (North America, Japan, Europe); Main end-uses for CLT remaining large sized panels for walls and flooring constructions; European CLT production was more than 500 km3 in 2014, with approximately 60% of the total production capacity shared by three companies, as the chart ‘CLT Producing Companies’ shows; Global CLT production expected to reach 1000 km3 in calendar 2015.

Japan goes for large scale CLT In late 2014, Japan’s government announced the “CLT Road Map” as a way to advance the development of a sustainable CLT industry able to provide the Japanese building sector with 500 km3 of CLT annually by 20232024. By just 2016, CLT production capacity in Japan is planned to expand five-fold to 50 km3.

Japan’s general building code permits up to 6% of the mid-rise buildings to use

¢ C LT Producing Countries by Proportion: 2014 (%).

Source: IndustryEdge research

16

CLT or similar products. Following fire and char tests, from 2016, CLT could be used in quasi-fire zones. A program educating and informing architects and designers has commenced.

This Japanese program will not only provide evidence of reduced labour and associated building costs, but will also revitalise the Japanese forest industry by making possible the utilization of lower quality plantation timbers. More recently, during a visit to Austria, the Japanese Strategy Minister has promoted Japan’s expectations that the approximately 15,0000 athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games will be accommodated in an Olympic village built of laminated timber.

Other region’s developments gathering pace In North America, CLT production and use is on an ascending trend, pushed by strong research and testing in both Canada and the USA. Multiple projects are under development, with many to follow, in part because of the White House’s push for the development of so called ‘green jobs’ in rural economies, by promoting and developing the use of innovative wood products for larger buildings.

In Europe capacities are developing and in some instances refocusing and adjusting as in the case of Stora Enso (Building Solutions Finland division) that is closing down the Pälkäne production facility and concentrating the production of timber construction elements on the Varkaus facility.

Around the world the push for CLT based buildings continues:

• East London - nine-storey apartment building; • Norway – fourteen-storey apartment; • Sweden – plans for a thirty-four storey tower by 2023; • Vancouver – proposal for 16-18 storey tower at University of British Columbia; • Quebec City – thirteenstorey apartment building as a demonstration project; • China – (with Canadian collaboration) feasibility of building a six-storey wood frame building as well as wood or hybrid twelve to fifteen storey building in Shanghai.

Last but not least, very promising news from NZ’s XLAM that with support from Australia’s Hyne Timber, recently announced it is doubling its CLT production capacity to meet increasing Australasian demand. CLT shipments already include those for a new Sydney building, with weekly shipments from XLAM’s Nelson facility to follow.

It is understood that plans are underway to establish an Australian based CLT plant. IndustryEdge’s understanding is that complementing the use of Glulam, LVL and tri-board for structural functions, walls/flooring as well as pre-fabricated cassettes (I-joists).

CLT is gathering momentum in Australia. There is work to be done for Australia to catch-up with the rest of the world. Importantly, regulatory considerations are under development and will be detailed in the next edition of Wood Market Edge.

However, the wood resource exists, knowledge and skills in the industry are well developed and the building industry and its customers are becoming more and more interested.

We welcome your opinion: Email your feedback to j.hudswell@ryanmediapl.com.au

¢ C LT Producing Companies by Proportion: 2014 (%).

Source: IndustryEdge research

AUSTRALASIAN TIMBER

NOVEMBER 2015

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ENGINEERED WOOD

Cypress Durabeam meets BAL 19 fire code standards

R

ICHARD GRANT, Manager of Grants Sawmill at Narrandera, and Bruce Bell, Managing Director of Laminated Timber Supplies, have welcomed the latest results on bushfire intensity testing on Southern Region White Cypress.

Following Independent density and moisture content testing by Breitinger Consulting Engineers in Victoria, NATA Accredited Testing Laboratory, the following evaluation of Australian White Southern Cypress from Grants Sawmill at Narrandera, their findings now confirm: • At a median reading of 12% moisture content the averaged kiln dried densities are in excess of 770 Kg/m3.

• This is greater than the requirements of AS3959 for BAL19, which requires timbers to have a greater or equal to density of 750 Kg/m3.

Monitoring and weight testing has been ongoing for over 12 months and is measured on each load of dry semi feedstock leaving Grant’s Cypress Sawmill at Narrandera and Richard is now confident that Southern Region White Cypress will meet the BAL 19 Code requirements.

The Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) relates to the classification of bushfire intensity levels that a home structure may experience in a bushfire area. Each BAL rating has specific construction requirements as outlined in the Australian Standard AS 3959-2009: Construction of Buildings in Bushfire Prone Areas.

Three BAL levels have been assigned to Council Requirements; BAL 12.5 (low risk), BAL 19 (moderate risk)

BAL 29 (high risk). A house designed with these specific construction requirements is more likely to survive a bushfire, compared to those not built to specification.

Grant’s Cypress has been supplying high quality kiln dried timber to Laminated Timber Supplies in Melbourne for some 15 years and this specially graded machined timber goes into the manufacture of Durabeam/ Durapost, a patented process for external structural use of glulam components.

Bruce believes the findings are somewhat conservative when finally applied to the waterproof glued finished product.

“LTS has been trialling for some 16 years the use of Cutek Wood Preservative to assist in the stabilisation and protection of Cypress Glulam components used in severe weathering applications around Australia and overseas and is proving to be a valuable asset in the ongoing protection of Cypress in external/internal applications,” Bruce said.

“Durabeam products are sourced from PEFC/AFS Certificated forests and manufactured to the strict AUS/ NZ GLTAA manufacturing standards.

This is a uniquely Australian Native softwood, Durability 1 species, and is now used widely in the developing Commercial, Industrial, Residential and specialised market throughout Australia,” he said.

For more information: glulam@lamtim.com.au www.lamtim.com.au

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17

FRAME & TRUSS

Keeping an eye on different markets pays dividends

M

OST COMPANIES are heads-down tails-up when it comes to business, not a bad thing necessarily but too much focus on what’s close by can mean you don’t spot the opportunities elsewhere.

Not so for Adelaide-based Pine Design Truss and Timber’s managing director John Oulton, he looked forward and up. This enabled him to see the marketplace changes happening not only in his native Adelaide but also in Sydney.

In turn it led him to purchase Penrith-based Precision Frames and Trusses in April this year after starting negotiations in late 2014.

“I’ve got a business here in Adelaide, which used to be called Auspine Prefab, and it was a timber and truss operation and still is,” said John. “It’s a fairly large one in the Adelaide central district and of the 15 plus plants in South Australia; we’re one of the top two or three in size.”

However, he could see the writing was on the wall in Adelaide with the closure of a number of large employers - firstly Mitsubishi and now Holden - with future even more uncertain now that mining is also taking a downward turn.

“The Adelaide market runs on the back of the South Australian economy so Adelaide’s future is a bit uncertain, rather than dominant,” he said.

“I’ve been watching Sydney for about four or five years, basically the last surge in housing occurred around the Olympics and it’s taken a change of government in New South Wales to swing things around and start the ball rolling again.

“I saw that starting to happen in July or August last year and I started to look at plants that were either on their knees in New South Wales or gone under. The market was terrible.”

Fortunately for Pine Design it has good capital behind it and through looking forward John could see there was a better market scenario reappearing in Sydney. There were other advantages that sealed the deal... “So I can be competitive but I can utilise existing people here like technical staff, payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, the existing infrastructure we have in our office and purchasing power,” he said.

“There’s no need to be in Sydney to do the purchasing or the payroll or the technical drafting or quoting, it can be done in Adelaide.”

Despite this there has not been a great deal of downsizing in the Sydney operation even though the office has less staff but now the production side has more employees and better equipment. The office has a staff of three with 12 people on the factory floor.

For the last four years the prior owners had been looking to sell the business and retire so they had been less able and keen to expand, as well as that the market conditions then were pretty ordinary.

“All I purchased was the trading name and the equipment and I did take on some of the workforce,” said John. The trading name has respect in the market place. What they did was a good quality product and they had very good service and a very good reputation.”

¢ Award winning business.

¢ John Oulton, new owner of Precision Frames & Trusses with Shaun Aldred on the framing line.

¢ Work stations.

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NOVEMBER 2015

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FRAME & TRUSS

¢ Good quality products.

¢ Multinail’s new fast framing.

Since the takeover the company has purchased two new saws, a new wall frame line has been installed and a new table press.

A second new forklift and the Factory Management System (FMS) are due to arrive in the next few weeks. The equipment supplied and installed by the Multinail team has been a welcome change and provides confidence to meet the rise in demand.

Training and new work methods have also been implemented, and John too has had to re-adjust his

¢ D elivery to site.

thinking as he discovered that the two markets work very differently.

“There needed to be an adjustment in our thinking on how to understand the way that New South Wales builds and the type of clients we’re dealing with there,” he said.

“They’re not all major builders, there are a lot of smaller builders whose plans are not necessarily done in CAD, they are manual so there’s a learning curve for us and for them.”

Adelaide’s market is a stick market with builders

TIMBERMAN, August 2012 – 6

framing onsite and suppliers also supplying the eaves, door cavities, skirting and other fixtures. In Sydney it’s just the pre framed wall, truss and floor systems that are supplied.

“There’s a lot of work happening in Sydney so it’s a matter of keeping up with it and offering our services to other players in the market. We will quote everything. It’s not about pushing prices down, it’s about being paid a reasonable price for good quality and service,” said John.

FRAME AUSTRALIA

FRAME AUSTRALIA

buildingSmart with BIM J

OHN MITCHELL, chairman of buildingSmart Australasia looked around the room at the FRAME conference in Melbourne and asked if anyone knew what BIM was. Did anyone use BIM? The silence was telling.

Certainly there were people in the audience who had some knowledge while some like Claudelle Taylor of the Leighton Group had experience with BIM but mostly the audience was struck dumb.

As Mitchell went on to say, the building industry is not renowned for its affinity with and use of high tech computer software programs but it is time. Other industries have already embraced similar systems, and other countries are embracing Building Industry Modelling (BIM).

So what is Building Industry Modelling?

“BIM is 3D object model that is like a building database, easily visualized,” said Mitchell. “We can extract significant intelligence out of it.”

Currently there is a lack of integration along the supply chain linking parties and between project phases but it’s not impossible to fix.

As Mitchell said other industries such as the Australian Air Conditioning Manufacturers Association has already started supply chain integration.

Other issues that plague the building industry are its reliance on the lowest bid strategy rather than a value for money proposition. There is poor understanding of optimized and properly documented designs. According to Mitchell the “Getting it Right” study in Queensland in 2005 identified this problem. That was seven years ago and it still lingers.

There is also inadequate and ineffective use of technology and a lack of appreciation of the benefits of open communication.

In 2010 Mitchell’s organization commissioned a survey with the Commonwealth’s help that looked at adopting BIM in the Australian construction sector.

Implementation Plan. The starting point was the outcomes of the MESH conferences in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney in early 2011.

The roadblocks are these: • Lack of model building protocols • Little product data for BIM object libraries • Legal and insurance impediments

We do need it, we need to build better, we need to make better use of resources.

“The economic potential is extraordinary, extraordinary, a $4 billion potential per annum - $4 billion productivity potential per annum, this mirrors many other studies around the world,” said Mitchell.

“We do need it, we need to build better, we need to make better use of resources, we need to be more efficient and deliver higher value for money.”

The lessons from the 2D CAD current technology are clear, after 20 years there are still no common guidelines, no consensus in either government or industry and the documentation instead of improving is deteriorating.

“There is significant risk if we do not align with international BIM developments – it’s a worldwide turn to BIM,” said Mitchell. buildingSMART Australasia was commissioned at the end of 2111 to undertake the development of a BIM

• Poor standards for information exchange • Inconsistencies in information handover protocols • Skills gaps • Lack of strategic research focus • Industry resistance to process change The participants at the stakeholder consultation workshops conducted by buildingSmart proposed key recommendations. First and foremost was that a BIM adoption roadmap should be completed.

Commonwealth, State and Territory governments should be encouraged to require full collaborative BIM for their building procurements and they should develop procurement processes and assistance packages to encourage its adoption.

Legal and technical instruments needed to support the introduction of BIM should

7 - August 2012, TIMBERMAN

Lend Lease lends its might to CLT be developed and aligned with relevant international codes and standards. We must think globally.

Education is a must to enable the industry to meet the demands of technology for new workers and re-training for those already in the industry.

Easy access must be facilitated to building product manufacturer’s certified information for use in all types of modelbased applications through an Australian on-line BIM products library.

Open standard data exchange protocols should be established that support collaboration and facilitate integration of the briefing, design, construction, manufacturing and maintenance supply chain throughout the entire life of a built facility.

Governments around the world are seeing the advantage of BIM as it can be used to support automated code checking, ensure buildings meet environmental and energy performance requirements, make certain asset and management information is available at all tiers of government for operational, maintenance, fiscal and strategic planning.

The global construction software industry is well advanced in the change to BIM. All the major vendors Graphisoft ArchiCAD, Nemetscheck Allplan and Bentley Triforma have IFC certification, and now Autodesk Revit has committed to IFC compliance.

Only by adopting BIM, by accepting new processes and by sharing information will the building industry stay competitive.

A

FTER LISTENING to Andrew Neiland from Lend Lease it was difficult to understand why it has taken so long for Australia to embrace CLT, and even harder to understand why it has taken the major construction companies this long to make it all add up.

Initially it seemed odd that Neiland, who comes from the accounting side of the Lend Lease business, was presenting to a timberoriented audience at the Frame Australia conference.

That soon passed as he recounted the reductions that Lend Lease faced through the use of CLT in its new multi-storey Forte apartment building in Melbourne.

Admittedly it won’t be just reduced costs – but that’s the main take-away point, the other reductions relate to significantly lower construction noise, less occupational health and safety issues, and a smaller environmental footprint.

The big cost reduction will come courtesy of reduced construction time, reduced truck movements, less labour, reduced building weight leading to reduced foundation requirements and more.

“It’s lightweight, timber is roughly a fifth the weight of concrete,” said Neiland. “[with precast concrete] you only get a couple of pieces on a truck and that’s about it, you can truck a vast number of CLT panels in one go, so get a huge reduction in truck movements.

“In terms of how the site looks the general comments we have from our construction teams is clean, and how quiet and how orderly the site is,” said Neiland.

“One mobile crane, a couple days of CLT ready for installation and a crew of four guys putting it into place - very quiet and efficient process.”

Victoria Harbour was the instigator Melbourne’s Victoria Harbour has been a development hot spot for some time and Lend Lease was trying to make the most of the limited land available. On North Wharf the company was faced with a problem.

“The building conditions are not great, it’s on silt so we looked for a lightweight construction solution and came up with CLT,” said Neiland.

“That was most viable option and we found a lot more benefits than just light weight. So they assembled a team of designers and engineers to go and have a look at it.

“They saw the opportunity immediately – for an all expenses paid trip to Europe.”

It paid off, representatives from Lend Lease visited 14 projects in Europe, they visited the CLT producers and met with architects who had worked on similar projects and came away very impressed.

“They came away very impressed that it was a proven solution where the owners and occupiers really enjoyed the outcome, and really enjoyed living in these buildings,” he said.

Due diligence on the project took three years to complete.

What Lend Lease did discover and what the company has brought into play with the Forte construction in Bourke Street, Melbourne – only a few doors down from Lend Lease HQ – is that using CLT is a design process.

“It’s not taking a concrete building and replacing concrete with timber, it’s a new process. It’s about completing all your design up-front rather designing as your going,” said Neiland.

“It’s about a factory process where you sign off on the drawings, you work out all the crane movements, you work out the logistics, the truck movements then you manufacture. By doing

this we are minimizing waste and reducing errors and building faster.

“If you design it well it will last, if you design it poorly it won’t.”

Australia’s building code doesn’t take into account timber buildings taller than three storeys so for Forte Lend Lease had to undertake a fire engineered solution and that’s not something that everyone can do. It may be a barrier to highrise CLT construction in Australia unless it is addressed.

Forte is nine storeys tall (with a ground floor retail area) with 23 apartments and four townhouses.

Lend Lease was faced with a certain amount of dismay when it came to fire approvals.

“Melissa Chandler who is our building codes expert said it was the most interesting conversation she’s ever had with the fire brigade in her life.

“Saying we’re building 10 storeys of timber, the lift well, the fire stairs and we’re leaving the fire stairs exposed timber. The look on their faces was priceless. We convinced them it was a good idea,” said Neiland. “We did the fire testing of the CLT panels with the CSIRO to achieve our approvals.

“While it is not of a size that requires sprinklers we are installing sprinklers for this one,” he added.

As the ground floor is to be a retail space that floor is designed very differently to the apartments and so it is mounted on a concrete slab which was laid in February this year. The CLT installation started in June and it is anticipated that it will take eight weeks to put up and should be finished in August.

The whole building should be finished in October this year.

Neiland said that for his company it wasn’t just about building a building in CLT it needed to be a step change in sustainability and that is

certainly what has happened. This will be the first 5-star green star building built in a residential environment.

Each apartment is dual aspect and will take 25% less energy to heat and cool compared with a typical apartment, which equates to roughly $300 a year saved. All apartments will have a smart meter to link to an in-home display, which shows real time and historic data on energy consumption.

Not only that, but simply by using timber 1451 tonnes of carbon is saved (cradle to site).

Like every new idea there were challenges, the biggest was the logistics of shipping a building from Europe to Australia. KLH in Europe is the manufacturer of CLT for the Forte construction and so the panels had to be shipped to Australia and then stored awaiting installation.

Out it came – 485 tonnes of timber, 759 CLT panels shipped in 25 containers in two ships.

Lend Lease then did some other due diligence on the project, at 32.17 metres tall was it the tallest timber building in the world?

“We came across Nikolai (Sutyagin) who was friendly old chap in Russia who was lonely and in 1992 he started to build a timber house for himself. He went a couple of storeys up and just kept going and he didn’t stop until he got to about 44 metres.

“So we couldn’t go out with the claim that it is the tallest timber building so we modified it with a clause that it’s the tallest apartment timber building,” said Neiland.

For the future Neiland said that Lend Lease is considering building up to 50% of its residential apartments using CLT. “For us Forte is not a one-off demonstration building,” he said.

You can see live webcam vision of the Forte building under construction at http://www. forteliving.com.au

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19

BUSINESS PROFILE - AKD

Continuous technological improvements help keep AKD in a special class

A

KD SOFTWOODS is based in Colac, a bustling South West Victorian regional city with a bright future. There is a double lane highway development between Colac and Geelong that has brought the Geelong and Melbourne markets “closer”, and a city that recognises it has a world class employer in AKD. The AKD Softwood’s Irrewarra and Colac facilities have grown into a sawmilling company that is eclipsing the competition not just by virtue of its products but also by virtue of its innovative and strategic outlook. In fact, to call AKD a sawmilling company is selling it short.

“AKD has been in business for 60 years, with no change to the shareholders since 1962,” said Shane Vicary, CEO AKD Softwoods. This gives AKD its well known strong and stable platform to operate its current business and the confidence to continue to invest.

“We’re the fourth largest sawmilling business in Australia and I believe the only truly vertically integrated company – as we own plantations, our own sawmills, we run a remanufacturing operation finger jointing and we distribute our products to our customers on our trucks”.

AKD owns and maintains an 8000ha plantation estate, operates two sawmills with a log capacity of over 600,000m3 per annum, kiln drying and downstream processing facilities, as well as a trucking fleet to deliver products to its 300 customers.

And AKD has just the one business mantra - “be internationally competitive and continuously improve”.

Innovative sawmiller AKD has a reputation of being one of the more innovative sawmilling companies in Australia, having invested significantly in either new technologies or the latest international development.

Back in early 2014 the company was told its supply of coal briquettes would be uncertain after December that year following withdrawal of government support.

Replacement of the coal briquette boiler would not only lead to AKD undertaking another innovative step towards the future it would also reduce its reliance on burning fossil fuels in a location close to a Colac (12,000 people).

So, AKD decided to commission two boilers and two CDKs -- as opposed to single units -- to enable simple production redundancy in the warm drying months to better optimise its gas and electricity usage (when full capacity is not required) and to enable maintenance programs to be completed on equipment without impacting 100% of the drying capacity.

There was also an argument that AKD could run two

boilers more efficiently than one in that it would have a ‘lead’ boiler and a ‘follower’ where the ‘follower’ only supplied the balance of capacity required.

“The technology in the gas-fired boilers is the latest technology available which includes ‘economisers’ which reduce gas consumption by an additional 5-9%,” says Shane.

Revolutionary new system CDK kilns are innovative and recognised as being revolutionary for the industry. Globally, this technology is progressively replacing older batch type kilns and AKD is the first company in Australia to install and operate such innovative technology.

A key advantage is that they are 30% more energy efficient than batch kilns, i.e. they can dry 30% more timber than conventional kilns for the same energy input ... reducing AKD’s expenditure!

Continued on page 22

CDK kilns are innovative and recognised as being revolutionary for the industry. Most important is the quality of timber produced. It’s straighter and more stable, therefore, AKD customers will receive a superior product that other Australian producers can’t match -- Shane Vicary AKD CEO 20

AUSTRALASIAN TIMBER

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www.akd.com.au Phone: (03) 52 319 111

Reliable and Sustainable... Naturally

BUSINESS PROFILE - AKD

“You really have to be at the forefront of the latest developments or you will be left behind” Shane Vicary CEO, AKD Softwoods ¢ Part of the team ... (left to right) John Brown, Craig Conway, Gary Morrissy.

Continued from page 20 Energy efficiency is achieved through timber stacks running in opposite directions which allows heat coming off the dry timber stacks to preheat the green timber stacks, and moisture coming off the green timber to condition the dry timber. This energy efficient process occurs at both ends of the kiln and also has the added advantage that no externally sourced water is used in this process compared to batch kilns.

Massive water saving Actually, AKD estimates that the total water saving per annum will be in the vicinity of 20ML (a cost saving of $44k per annum) which is an important consideration in the Victorian catchment.

“The CDK brand we have specified (Mahild) will have a capacity to dry 150,000m3 of timber per annum which will replace the existing volume at Irrewarra”.

“That said, the CDK process will potentially give the company an option to increase scale, a key ingredient to success in a consolidating and competitive international market place,” said Shane.

The CDK kilns can dry timber with a standard deviation of +/- 1.5% compared to a batch kiln at +/- 4.0%. “This is a significant advantage in the next stage of processing in the drymill where timber outside a specified moisture content range has to be rehandled and redried, or potentially downgrading the value of the timber. This has a direct impact on profitability as it reduces the levels of reject and downgraded timber and also reduced mechanical downtime due to lower levels of poorly dried timber,” Shane said.

Logistically, the CDK kilns promote much more efficient handling of timber as the timber is fed both in and out of the kilns via automated

pushers. This is in comparison to AKD’s current batch kiln system where the batch kilns need to be manually loaded and emptied exactly on time.

Quality assured “Most important is the quality of timber produced,” says Shane, “it’s straighter and more stable, therefore, AKD customers will receive a superior product that other Australian producers can’t match,” he said.

The first kiln started operating in August 2015, with the second following closely in 2015, giving AKD 4 separate chambers of drying.

“You really have to be at the forefront of the latest developments or you will be left behind with inefficient plants making inferior products with a high cost base,” said Shane.

¢ CEO Shane Vicary, local Corangamite MP Sarah Henderson and the team at AKD Irrewarra.

22

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Join the prefabrication revolution We know that, when it comes to carbon in the atmosphere, timber is on the side of the angels.

To discuss how you can be involved, contact us today.

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ASSOCIATIONS

Collaboration helping to cut costs

By Kersten Gentle Executive Officer FTMA Australia

W

HERE HAS the year gone? It just highlights the quote that time flies when you’re having fun….and of course fabricators are having fun when times are busy.

FTMA Australia has been busy continuing to work on the important issue of timber waste and is using the Western Plains region of NSW as a trial cluster region to bring the four fabricators together to address the timber waste costs to their business. At the August meeting it was refreshing to hear the fabricators share information on their timber waste and ways in which they can save money through disposal of plastic, steel and cardboard as some fabricators were paying for these products to be removed, whereas another was having it collected free.

This meeting was true collaboration and it was fantastic to see four competitors working together on issues that could save their businesses money. The next step is to tender out all their waste as one contract. The four businesses all use different waste disposal companies, different size bins and some even use different methods of waste disposal. FTMA is assisting in collating all the data to put out to tender to all the waste companies in the district and we believe this will reduce their costs significantly which is a great win for all involved and highlights the importance of collaboration.

While in Sydney I had the chance to visit one of our newest members in NSW which is Precision Frames & Trusses in Penrith which has been taken over

by FTMA Board member John Oulton who also owns Pine Design in South Australia.

The equipment and layout of his plant was fantastic and I have to say the new Multinail Framing Line was extremely impressive and made the framing section run so smoothly whilst reducing the space needed for the line.

Another new member of FTMA Australia is another Multinail fabricator, Dean Kidd who formerly worked for Dahlsens. Dean and his wife Tammy have set up their own business, Kidd Trusses in Dandenong South and after 15+ years working in the industry, Dean and Tammy now have their own business. Congratulations to the new Kidd on the block and welcome to both John and Dean as new members of our Association.

Solid initiatives FTMA Australia is currently working on a number of initiatives for members which are designed to increase business skills and communication across the supply chain as well as a program for team leadership development for fabricators.

The Frame & Truss Team Leadership Development program is available for FTMA Members only and is a bit by bit sized leadership development program 24

that will enable business owners and their team leaders to have regular conversations at a time that suits them to talk about what they are learning every week to build a cohesive culture and leadership team across the business so that business improvement initiatives can be implemented.

The program involves using “The Steps to Success” authored by Peter McLean as a tool for critical reflection supported by direct coaching support from Peter.

This support includes conducting quarterly half-day face-to-face workshops for companies participating in their own workplaces, weekly work sheets supplied on a USB as well as telephone coaching, webinars and email support over a twelve month program.

This approach will allow the members of the FTMA to be sharing a common approach in in-house team leadership development.

The Delivery Method is achieved through delivering an initial half-day coaching seminar, using the 52-week critical reflection journal - “the Steps to Success”.

This proven delivery mechanism covers and repeats cycles of critical reflection for the business leaders, and their team leaders, in and around the areas of: Mission, vision & values • Strategic thought and business planning • Leadership of self and others • Management of self and others • Organisational Culture These elements provide a framework, a shared process and language, which facilitates open, rapid communication and effective action, at the personal level and across the business as a whole.

The method also delivers a pathway for leadership and organisational development that is easy to use and maintains the integrity of the business culture and ensures business improvement.

Importantly, FTMA, as always, covers the needs of the small through to the large fabricator and the program and consultations will be tailored to the needs of each fabricator company and at the end of each program the fabricator will receive a final report of their activities and input from the team over the year.

The benefits of this training approach is the fact that it is bite by bite learning that enables participants to think about one section at a time whilst not chewing up valuable working time.

Other benefits include: • Easy to follow in-house team leadership development program • Copy of the book for all participants to be used as a reference guide in to the future • Scheduled times within the business to share insights • Quarterly forums to get feedback and talk about the company, the lessons learned and the progress being made • Expert facilitation and annual coaching support provided as required by participants at a time that suits them • Business development tailored to your business, and; • Business report for each participating company and / or individual at the conclusion of the program.

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¢ Multinail’s new Fast Framing.

¢ Dean and Tammy Kidd.

¢ J ohn Oulton, new owner of Precision Frames & Trusses with Shaun Aldred on the framing line.

For those smaller companies who do not necessarily have a leadership team, we have also designed the program where it involves more online/telephone coaching to work through the program which is delivered at a much reduced rates.

FTMA Australia is working on accessing direct Government funding for FTMA Members wishing to participate in this program where we hope dollar for dollar funding can be provided ensuring the program is not only beneficial for fabricators but affordable.

More information will be sent to

members during September/October and we hope businesses will take up this great opportunity to enhance their leadership team and value add to their business.

AUSTRALASIAN TIMBER

NOVEMBER 2015

For further information

on this program or on FTMA Membership please call me on 0418 226 242 or email me at kersten@ftmaaustralia.com.au

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ASSOCIATIONS

Conduct at workplace functions • This decision offers employers a seasonal reminder that organising work related holiday celebrations required careful consideration of liability for alcohol service and its effects.

Brian Beecroft Chief Executive Officer Timber Trade Industrial Association

A

S THE festive season rapidly approaches the Association considers that the following is worth highlighting.

In a case arising out of the Christmas festivities, the Fair Work Commission held that the dismissal of an employee for drunken behaviour at a workplace Christmas function was unfair. Among other things, the FWA expressed concern that: • the employer had failed to take precautionary steps to moderate the supply and consumption of alcohol at its functions; and • at the event, senior managers did not take steps to moderate the employee’s behaviour or to reduce the level of alcohol consumption.

A failure to prevent injuries or sexual harassment during these festivities can result in significant liability for employers that can have a sobering effect in the New Year.

Alcohol Apart from the strict requirements under liquor licensing laws, alcohol-related injuries can result in full or partial liability for the supplier of alcohol, including an employer hosting a function for its staff or clients. Liability can extended to injuries that occur in the absence of any proper supervision of the safety of all guests.

Party tricks and offensive behaviour Certain inappropriate behaviour at staff functions, much of which can be attributed to the “good cheer” which often accompanies these events, can lead to employers being vicariously liable for discrimination or sexual explicit or derogatory humour in Christmas skits, inappropriate Kris Kringle gifts, and “party tricks”. An employer’s only defence to a discrimination or harassment claim arising out of these circumstances is to show that it took all reasonable steps to prevent the behaviour from occurring.

Key risk management strategies • Make sure that you have clear policies on the service of alcohol at work events and on equal opportunity issues.

In the period leading up to Christmas, employers are advised to have in place and advertise their policies about equal opportunity and the service of alcohol at work functions.

• Ensure a management representative is designated to supervise activities at the function.

• Be confident that employees understand that your alcohol and EO policies apply at an employer organised work function, even if it is being held off site. Advertise this fact in clear terms and offer a refresher on the key elements of the policies.

• Arrange for sober supervision for the duration of the festivities. People who have clearly had enough should be asked tactfully to stop drinking and, if necessary, sent home via a safe means of transport. Attendees under the legal drinking age should not be served.

• Provide plenty of food, soft drinks and light alcoholic drinks.

• Set a reasonable finishing time.

• Supply or arrange safe transportation options for the night, and advertise these in advance to discourage people from driving that day.

Any Member requiring assistance with this matter, please contact the TTIA on (02) 9264 0011.

Deck fixing considerations

RADITIONALLY, TIMBER decks have been held down with nails and many styles of nails have been produced specifically for timber decking. Because timber decking is generally exposed to the weather we need to have due regard for durability and with this, any area of the deck that can cause moisture to be trapped, is a site for potential decay.

In older decks that have given many years of valuable service it is often at the butt joints over joists or around nails that decay has started to set in. Both these areas have the potential to trap moisture. For this reason a decking nail generally has a dome head to provide a ‘cap’ at the deck surface rather than a recess that can hold moisture.

But, do all nails have the same alibility to hold decking boards in place?

This question was answered some years ago in a study undertaken by Timber Queensland Ltd. At that time there was some concern that boards in some decks could twist and loosen the fixings. Although it was known that the density of timber in the joists, the length of the nail and the diameter of the nail all influenced the fixing strength, this study added another important aspect. It is also the roughness of the nail that plays a significant part in the fixing strength. That is, the rougher the nail the better it will hold. There was a perception that a spiral shank nail would provide a ‘rough’ surface, however, when manufactured in a material such as stainless steel, the shank is actually very smooth. In comparison a hot dipped galvanised plain shank nail has a rough surface and better holding ability. A simple way of assessing the

roughness is to pull the nail shank through finger and thumb closed over it.

The material that the fixing is made from or the coating applied to prevent corrosion becomes particularly important in harsher environments. Hot dipped galvanised coatings are much more durable than mechanically galvanised and within a metre of swimming pools stainless steel fixings are necessary.

Therefore when it comes to nail fixing in decks you not only need to consider the relative strengths of the board and joist materials, the length and diameter of the nails but also give consideration that rougher nail surfaces provide better fixing strength and that in harsh environments greater consideration needs to be given to the durability aspects of the nail.

In addition to nails, decking boards may also be screwed into the joists and these provide a fixing strength that far exceeds that of nails. But not any screw should be used. Again durability of the fixing needs consideration and screws with specific coatings that also cater for the corrosive nature of any timber treatment processes are available and work very well. Screws generally have counter sunk heads and therefore there is no ‘capping’ effect as with nails.

More recently other fixing options have been introduced to the market. One of the constraints with timber decks is the proud dome head nails, when it comes time to refurbish the deck in the future. Owners often desire to have their decks re-sanded and coated in order to have them look ‘new’ again. This poses a problem with dome head fixing as in order to sand the deck the nails need to be punched and this not only negates part of the purpose for the dome head but also can create splits in the boards when the nails are punched.

To overcome this, a number of different types of secret fixing methods are now available. With secret fixing no fixings are visible on the exposed board surface and therefore a very neat presentation is achieved and the deck can be re-sanded with ease in the future. The systems vary from pressed metal cleats fixed to the joists that ‘grab’ the edges of the boards, to cleats that are screw fixed to joists and lock the grooved board edges and also a system that screw fixes the edges of the boards direct to the joists. With some of these systems there can be limitations as to preferred timber species and required board tolerances.

When it comes to deck fixing there are a number of aspects to consider. Some relate to initial aesthetics,

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AUSTRALASIAN TIMBER

David Hayward ATFA Technical Manager.

As spring approaches many get outdoors again and look to create a new deck area around their pool or adjoining their house ready to enjoy the longer summer days ahead. David Hayward, ATFA Technical Manager, discusses some aspects about the importance of considering the different fixing methods and options available for timber decks.

T

NOVEMBER 2015

¢ A number of common fixings designed for decks including a range of nails and a screw.

¢ S ecret fixing.

¢ A secret fixing system and a deck ... exceptionally neat!

some relate to durability of both the deck and fixing method and some relate to future maintenance options.

It is however clear that deck fixing is just as important as say choosing the decking boards or coating system and needs to be considered at the initial planning stages.

25

ASSOCIATIONS

TABMA – Trade Credit Insurance Program

By Colin Fitzpatrick Chief Executive Officer Timber & Building Materials Association (Aust.) Ltd

T

ABMA AND NCI have partnered with QBE Trade Credit to offer an exclusive package to benefit members. Timber, Hardware and Construction is an ideal industry for credit insurance, however, premiums can be above average due to the higher chance of non-payment. The TABMA Trade Credit Insurance Program has filled this gap by offering a wide range of features and benefits that were previously unavailable in Australia.

NCI claims statistics from the first half of 2015 reveal there were 88 trade credit insurance claims in the building, hardware and timber industries with total values exceeding $4.1m. Statistics such as these highlight the need for a specialised trade credit insurance program. Together TABMA and NCI have achieved this. The exclusive benefits to TABMA members are: • Very competitive 12 month policy premiums – from $6,850 • A low shared claims excess amongst all insured members on the same insured buyer • Exclusion of part of turnover, saving on premium costs • 90% indemnity • All limit administration charges and discretionary limit report costs managed centrally by NCI • 100% reimbursement of collection and legal costs for insured buyers • Pay by instalments

those security interests.

• The PPSA doesn’t just apply to those who take a more traditional security over others’ assets (such as a bank securitising a loan). If a supplier has any sort of claim to an Australian buyer’s assets in order to ensure they will honour their payment obligations then the PPSA, most likely, will apply.

For example: • Selling goods on Retention of Title terms; • Supplying goods to a retailer to be sold on the supplier’s behalf;

What would be the impact if one of your largest debtors failed to pay you? The TABMA Trade Credit Insurance Program is there so you don’t have to find out the hard way. For more information on TABMA and NCI’s partnership, contact Graham Crozier on 02 9458 2622.

Exposures lie in all aspects of business and more often than not these risks can be minimised or removed. NCI highlight the need to address 3 areas including PPSR, Privacy and Preferences. When combined these 3 ensure that compliance is met, meaning you remain better protected.

PRIVACY:

PPSA:

To make a successful preference claim, the liquidator must prove that payments were received in respect of an unsecured debt.

Creditors who have a perfected security interest (such as a PMSI claim, a retention of title creditor or hirer of goods) are usually entitled to claim the status of a secured creditor.

The Personal Property Securities Act (2009) relates to any instance where property (other than real estate property) is used as collateral in a security arrangement: • it establishes rules for determining the relative priority of competing security arrangements; and • it creates a national register for recording and viewing

Privacy law reform applies to most businesses supplying on credit. Businesses which turnover more than $3million p.a. and access personal information of individuals (including sole traders, company directors and personal guarantors) are required to comply with the Australian Privacy Principles.

Non-compliance can see maximum penalties of $1.7m.

The consequences are very real. Additional issues are the wasted time, money and energy in dealing with a complaint.

PREFERENCES:

Getting on the front foot early produces the best results when responding to a preference claim. When creditors receive a preference claim, broadly speaking there are three ways to deal with it: (a) Write a cheque (b) Do nothing and hope that it goes away (c) Get on the front foot and actively work to make the liquidator go away.

In our experience, getting on the front foot early almost always produces the best net results. Be sure to use a specialist solicitor, because the first response needs to be handled effectively.

NCI can help in all these areas, for more information visit www.nci.com.au or contact Gary Coates on Gary.

Coates@nci.com.au or 02 9458 2626.

Correction There was an omission of a word in the FWPAfeatured article (page 12, Australasian Timber, August edition) last paragraph... “the EPD for 1m3 of Australian sawn kiln-dried and planed softwood shows that it stores 900 kg of carbon. It is actually 900kg of carbon dioxide.

Wood Innovations 2016 to offer updates on growing market MORE THAN 220 delegates from wood treatment and timber manufacturing companies participated in the Forest Industry Engineering Association’s (FIEA) Wood Innovations 2014 event.

Now, Wood Innovations 2016 is planned to run in Rotorua, New Zealand, on 24-25 May and again in Melbourne, Australia on 31 May-1 June.

Next year’s event will provide a timely update on these rapidly growing markets. The technology series provides a timely insight into new and emerging formulations, innovative new treatment processes, changing standards, international developments and issues that would impact on local operations along with opportunities for growth.

Alternate wood products to timber treated with wood preservatives were also increasingly making themselves known in the marketplace. Wood Plastic Composites and modified wood products were a commercial reality, were already being produced in commercial quantities locally and could offer a genuine alternative to more traditional treated wood products.

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The scope for expansion by existing wood producers or new businesses is considerable. The global wood plastic composites market for example is expected to reach US$5.4 billion in 2019, expanding at a compounded annual growth rate of around 11% over the next four years with the greatest growth being projected in the Asia Pacific region.

In addition to preservative wood treatment and modification, based on feedback from the 2014 event, next year the technology series will also be looking at surface coatings and timber durability, engineered wood products and some of the new technologies that are being developed to mitigate environmental issues around these new wood treatments and processes.

Wood Innovations 2016 will be covering; • Developments in wood preservative formulations and processes • Advances in alternative products to preservative treated wood AUSTRALASIAN TIMBER

NOVEMBER 2015

• Modified wood products – trends and opportunities for local wood producers • Composite and engineered wood products and options for future manufacturing • The real impacts of growing “green consumerism” on treated wood products • New legislation and changes to building and timber treatment standards • Disposal of treated wood products – key issues for the industry • Wood treatment QA and QC schemes • Research and innovations around new surface coatings • What’s new in engineered wood products www.timberbiz.com.au

PRODUCT UPDATE

Business maintains a leading edge

T

RADEWARE BUILDING Supplies in Capalaba has a special addition in its machine shop in the form of a brand new Fullpower four sided moulding machine supplied and commissioned by Advanced Timber Systems.

“With an ever increasing demand for custom machining for the trade and home handyman market the decision was made to make this investment to meet this demand,” says David Evans of Tradeware Building Supplies.

“Our new Fullpower planer can dress timber down to a minimum finish size of 15 x 10mm and up to a maximum finish size of 200 x 300mm. Also, having a bandsaw on site we can rip large size timbers down to dress to any size within the above range to suit our customers’ needs,” he says.

The close ties between Tradeware Building Supplies and Advanced Timber Systems started at least a decade ago and, according to David, it’s been one of those associations that is a win-win for all.

“We buy all our stuff from them,” he says, “they’re so good to deal with.

Nothing is too much trouble.”

“Take the case of the latest installation (the moulder) ... the decision to go ahead and purchase the machine was made after close consultation. The timeline was about six months,” says David, “that was from making the decision to commissioning. The machine had to be built for us”.

“Everything worked out well.”

“We are also very proud of our ‘Slab Master’, which can sand XOS posts and slabs to a beautiful smooth finish. Put the cutting head on, and this machine can take even our biggest posts, and dress them to perfectly square and straight,” says David.

“Our Slab Master is capable of machining timbers up to 1.6 metres in width, 350mm in thickness and 6.3 metres in length. We have produced some spectacular pieces of timber on this machine.

Since commissioning a new integrated dust extraction system and heavy duty docking saw in January 2011 Advanced Timber Systems have continued a

¢ T he Slabmaster produces some spectacular pieces.

very close working relationship with Tradeware Building Supplies not only for the supply of new equipment but also with routine and breakdown servicing.

With the addition of the new planer to their already comprehensive machining facility Tradeware Building Supplies is truly a complete “one stop shop” covering everything from small single piece orders to large volume machining runs.

“So, with our Fullpower Planer, Slab Master, Ripsaw and Sander we can offer various machining options. Contact us to discuss whatever machining you may require , from small single piece orders to large volume machining runs.”

Tradeware Building Supplies (07) 3245 2288.Email tradeware@bigbond.com.

Site: www.tradewarebuildingsupplies. com.”

Advanced Timber Systems, 61 Briggs Road, Raceview, Queensland, 4305. PH: (07) 3288 8170. FAX: (07) 3288 8176.

¢ The brand new Fullpower four sided moulding machine works with ease.

Master Builders and Australasian Timber partnership AUSTRALASIAN TIMBER has secured a partnership with Master Builders Australia to distribute the publication electronically to its members.

Master Builders Australia is the nation’s peak building and construction industry association and has grown to over 33,000 member companies with representation in every state and territory in Australia, including the top 100 construction companies.

Master Builders is the only industry association that represents all three sectors, residential, commercial www.timberbiz.com.au

and engineering construction.

Membership of the MBA movement represents 95% of all sectors of the building industry.

The primary role of Master Builders Australia is to promote the viewpoints and interests of the building and construction industry and to provide services to members in a broad range of areas including training, legal services, industrial relations, building codes and standards, industry economics and international relations.

AUSTRALASIAN TIMBER

NOVEMBER 2015

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