Hindmarsh Corporate Centre
Located at Nhill in Victoria. This project provided plenty of challenges.
The Hindmarsh City Council project presented a number of challenges for Vicbeam. The long spanning Vic Ash GL18 HW Rafters were manufactured as normal production; however the curved timber columns with tight radii proved more difficult. Victorian Ash to our knowledge had not been designed in such an application where a radius of less than 1m was required. To achieve the tight curve we used thinner lamination’s (7.5mm) to crank a radius of 525mm. Leading up to the manufacturing process we were concerned that the Vic Ash would not withstand such treatment. There was a risk of the timber fracturing under such high loads. This required us to carefully source quality timber where the straightness of grain is essential for sharp bends. The timber grading process required the removal of small knots to increase strength and reduce the possibility of failure in the laminating process. The beams were cranked to the engineer’s specification and installed without any problems.
Vicbeam is very pleased with the end product and to be associated with such an exciting and ground breaking project.
