Hyne Timber’s BEAM 15, engineered just in time to save the Australian Building Industry.

With massive shortages of high-grade feedstock for GL17 beams and Australia’s demand for these products at an all-time high, Hyne Timber realised they needed a solution to a growing problem, that could soon become a crisis.
Their focused creativity and pragmatism lead to and elegant solution, the glulam15 or BEAM 15, a product that will keep the Australian building industry powering for years to come.

Here’s what you need to know about the BEAM 15

GLULAM (GL) BEAMS ARE IN SHORT SUPPLY

As a natural resource, the supply of high-grade feedstock recovered from the sawmilling operations for GL17 beams has been steadily declining for the past 18-months or more.

This coupled with Australia’s increasing demand for structural pine framing and engineered beams, has put enormous pressure on the timber industry to ramp up production and make products more available to a growing market.

These two factors alone foreshadowed a growing shortage of high-grade glulam beams, especially the GL17.

NEED IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION

With Southern Pines taking a minimum of 28-years to mature, waiting for new feedstock wasn’t possible. And neither was undersupplying a market hungry for high-grade product.

Hyne Timber looked pragmatically at the problem. Then with creativity and innovation developed an entirely new grade of GLT from feedstock fibre that is readily available.

Already in production the BEAM 15 is a high-performance product engineered to handle long spans and critical loads. A high-performing product that looks identical to the GL17, it has a slightly lower MOE and can be used in almost any application where a GL17 has been specified.

What’s even better, because it’s made from a feedstock fibre that is highly available, supply to the Australian Building Industry can be met.

TESTED TO THE HIGHEST STANDARDS

Hyne Timber put their Beam 15 through a rigorous series of tests to ensure consistency in performance and compliance with the building code. Their in-house testing facility allowed them to determine the effectiveness of each beam – from the glue bond strength to the treatment efficacy levels, through to the strategic use of laminates in each beam.

During this development phase they tested each possible combination for delamination, finger joint strength, stiffness, and sheer strength.

This process was highly successful, and they were able to create a reliable method for consistent high-quality.
Then it was time to be assessed by an independent, accredited third-party, the Engineered Wood Products Association of Australasia (EWPAA) who were assisted by Griffith University.

21 unique sample types and a staggering 312 individual beam samples were vigorously tested by the EWPAA team. They immediately verified that Hyne Timber’s Beam 15 complied with the National Construction Code (NCC) and met the Australian standards in manufacturing and design – AS1328.1 and AS1720.1.

A full technical statement on the product is now available here, and Hyne Timber also offer “Hyne Design”, a free design software program that allows you to create engineering solutions for yourself.

To meet demand with their new product, Hyne Timber have built a new, large-scale manufacturing facility at the Port of Brisbane to service southeast Queensland. And they’ve reorganised New South Wales supply out of Newcastle and Victorian distributors to cope with demand in those areas too.

With the ever-increasing demand for building materials continuing to rise in 2022 and the need for engineered wood products yet to reach its peak, Hyne Timber are ready to meet the GLT needs of their customer, without compromising the renowned quality of their products.

Hardware & General are proud to work with Hyne Timbers and supply such innovative, high-quality products to all our customers.