A team of experts from Sydney University and BlueScope Lysaght ’s own engineering team have joined forces to come up with a major breakthrough in purlin design – the LYSAGHT® SUPAPURLIN range. The new SUPAPURLINS, available in both SUPAZED® and SUPACEE® profiles.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) of Sydney University, Professor Tim Hirst, was delighted with the new product. “I think it’s tremendous. The thing that impressed me was the fact that over so many years, there has been this association between the University and BlueScope Lysaght. To think what started out as a bright idea is now going forward into commercial development and into a successful story – it’s a tremendous day for Sydney University, for BlueScope Lysaght, and for an Australian product.”
The SUPAPURLINS are the first significant development in the field for decades. The longitudinal web stiffeners considerably improve the performance of the purlin, allowing it to span greater distances with ease. Strong and versatile, the innovative SUPAPURLIN design also allows increased spacing and fewer rows of bridging, making it the most cost-effective and efficient purlin around.
Jason Ellis, the Vice-President of Business Development at BlueScope Lysaght, describes the impact that the new purlin range will have on BlueScope Lysaght and its customers: “The SUPAPURLIN project is much more than just a new purlin with a different shape. It is a better purlin profile, combined with a faster, more accurate machine, supported by an improved service offer, with a unique Design Software available to help save time and, most importantly, money.”
The SUPAZED® 200 purlin has been trialled on the NSW market for about two years. The response has been so positive that BlueScope Lysaght has invested $3.5 million in a new machine to make the purlins. The new SUPAPURLIN machine will greatly benefit BlueScope Lysaght customers by significantly reducing lead times on the entire range of purlin profiles available.
The new purlin design is the brainchild of Sydney University’s Professor Greg Hancock. He combined forces with BlueScope Lysaght’s Mike Celeban, whose name is also on the patent, to create a purlin that was not only stronger than traditional purlins, but also practical and easy to install.
Professor Hancock explains how the revolutionary new purlin design came about. “I began to model a new purlin design in the mid-nineties, in response to a request from BlueScope Lysaght. One of the designs I modeled just performed a lot better – better than anything else on the market. The new design was trialled, but it didn’t seem to penetrate the market. In a way, it was a purely academic idea – how to get the absolute best from a purlin, but it wasn’t necessarily practical.”
“So then I started working with Mike Celeban from BlueScope Lysaght on how to actually optimise the purlin – creating something that still had the advantages that we discovered with the computer modeling, but that would be attractive to the marketplace at the same time. And that’s how we came up with the SUPAPURLINS. So the design is a result of a balance between practicality and commercial viability from BlueScope Lysaght, and technological innovation from my team at Sydney University,” he says.
Professor Hancock is thrilled to see the SUPAPURLIN range finally becoming a commercial reality. “It’s absolutely terrific,” he says. “It’s been a long time in the making, and it’s great to see BlueScope Lysaght investing in the product.”
The SUPAPURLINS also come with sophisticated new design software, in order to help customers design with the new purlins. The software is based on a programme developed by Professor Hancock, and his predecessor, Professor Nick Trahair, nearly 20 years ago. The new SUPAPURLIN software is more user-friendly, says Professor Hancock. “The SUPAPURLIN programme has been built off the back of a lot of fundamental research which was done over many, many years at the University of Sydney. The new thing about this software is that it’s got a great user interface. So any engineer can just sit down and type in the span sizes, all the details, and they’ve got the design straight away - they don’t have to look up any design tables. That’s what engineers want, that’s what our students want – they don’t have to do any calculations, they can just type it into the programme,” says Professor Hancock.
According to Dr Claire Baxter, Director of the Business Liaison Office at Sydney University, the University is delighted to have its research output used by industry. “We’re very proud of the fact that this is being used. It’s really one of our aims – to ensure that all of the research outputs that can be used are taken up by Australian industry. And this area is one that Australia is strong in, so it’s particularly satisfying that we can commercialise it through an Australian company like BlueScope Lysaght.”
The LYSAGHT SUPAPURLIN range is currently only available in NSW (as of December 2003).
BlueScope Lysaght is a leading supplier of steel building products, with a product range including roofing and walling, rainwater goods, fences, home improvements, structural sections and house framing. It exclusively uses premium steel products such as COLORBOND® steel, ZINCALUME® steel and GALVASPAN® steel.
- Infolink Architectural online