Why Beam 15 Video:
A Market in Need
Australia’s demand for engineered wood products are at an all-time high, with pressure on the timber industry to ramp up production to make glulam products more readily available to the market.
However, over the past 18-months while market demand has been growing to unprecedented levels in response to the hugely successful ‘HomeBuilder’ stimulus, our feedstock was on the decline.
Changing Nature of the Logs
As a natural resource, wood fibre is subject to the forces of nature and despite improvements to genetics and silvicultural treatment, the high-grade feedstock we recover from our sawmilling operations for GL17 beams has been steadily declining.
And with Southern Pines taking a minimum of 28 years to mature before harvesting, waiting for new feedstock was not an option. Neither was undersupplying a market hungry for a high-grade product.
Over the course of 2020-21, Hyne Timber’s answer was to develop Beam 15 – a high-performance product that’s engineered to handle long spans and critical loads. It is an entirely new grade of GLT that’s more readily available to support record-breaking market demand.
“The introduction of GL15 beams has increased availability and reduced lead times for our customers, allowing them to keep to their building schedule.” – Ashley Henkel, Design Hub Operations Manager, Langs Building Supplies
An Evolution in GLT
With the building industry demanding product and ongoing material shortages affecting build times, Beam 15 is a proprietary strength grade created by the engineers at Hyne. The introduction of Beam 15 was by no means an easy feat to accomplish.
From conception through to launch, Hyne Timber has invested significant resources to make Beam 15 a reality.
With the supply challenges for building materials continuing in 2022 and the need for engineered wood products yet to reach its peak, we have endeavoured to safeguard our customers’ GLT supply requirements, without compromising on our renowned product quality.
Performance & Quality Assurance
Beam 15 is the result of rigorous R&D and continual in-house testing, validated by EWPAA third-party compliance tests.
Beam 15 is made using high-strength, custom graded laminates, each individual laminate undergoes thorough testing before bonding. This means that our new Beam 15 not only looks identical to our Beam 17, but it also performs closely to GL17 and can be used in almost all applications where GL17 is specified.
As Australia’s largest GLT manufacturer, Hyne has built a 500m2 in-house R&D facility containing state-of-the-art equipment.
As a propriety product, we have run Beam 15 through a myriad of tests to ensure consistency in performance and compliance with the National Construction Code (NCC). The in-house testing facility allows our engineering team to determine the effectiveness of each beam - from the glue bond strength to the treatment efficacy levels, to the strategic combination of laminates in each beam.
During the creation of what would become Beam 15, our engineers tested each possible combination for delamination, finger joint strength, stiffness, and sheer strength. Through these tests they were able to create a reliable method for consistent high-quality.
“With the new GL15 grade beam we are confident that what we are specifying is actually available for the builder to buy. Even better because this new beam can be used in most applications where we traditionally specified a GL17 beam.” – Enda Lyons, Engineer & Director, Optimum Structures
Compliance
Beam 15 has been assessed by an independent third-party testing program, completed by Griffith University with the assistance of the Engineered Wood Products Association of Australasia (EWPAA). 21 unique sample types and a staggering 312 individual beam samples were tested to establish key properties and structural performance.
Hyne Timber’s Beam 15 complies with the National Construction Code (NCC) and meet the Australian standards in manufacturing and design – AS1328.1 and AS1720.1.
A full product technical statement can be downloaded below, as well as our free design software, Hyne Design, for customers looking for engineering solutions.
