Innovative Steel Solution for Capral Plant

Location:	Bundamba, Queensland
Country:	Australia
Project Size:	A$270 million
Engineer:	Rimco Building Systems
Builder:	Watpac
Fabricator:	Rimco Building Systems
Products Used:	AS/NZS 3678 - 300 XLERPLATE® LYSAGHT SupaZed® and LYSAGHT SupaCee® Purlins and Girts

A local Gold Coast firm has come up with an innovative and cost effective structural solution for the new A$270 million Capral Aluminium Extrusion Plant, currently under construction in Queensland. Continuing market growth has been the driving force behind construction of the new Capral Aluminium plant, which is located in Bremer Park, at Bundamba west of Brisbane.

The 17 hectare site is currently being constructed by Watpac and will provide aluminium extrusion, powder coating, anodising and warehouse facilities for Capral Aluminium.

Leading steel design and engineering firm, Rimco Building Systems has designed, manufactured and installed all the structural steel for the site, which includes the 61,807 square metre main production building, as well as separate buildings for die assembly, amenities, hub building, office, effluent treatment, caustic tanks cover, switchroom, bunded tanks, pump room and guard room.

Established in 1986, by Managing Director David Rolle, Rimco is a family owned company employing up to 50 staff. Rimco specializes in the design and engineering of large portal frame structures. Key company values include innovation, competitive service and quick turnaround on all projects, says David Rolle. "We are innovative in the design of our product and we always look to serve the customer first, providing true value for money and timely completion," he says.

Rimco has supplied 1,750 tonnes of structural steel for the Capral Aluminium Plant, all fabricated in its modern 4,000 square metre Arundel plant. "It's the largest job we've ever undertaken," says David. "We negotiated the structural steel contract with Watpac, on the basis of our design. We provided the drawings as part of our preliminary proposal and budget, which they accepted."

 

According to General Manager, Mike Burrows, the major challenge on the project was the fast tracked construction programme, which demanded fabricated steel to be on site in short time periods. "We had an extremely tight deadline on the project," says Mike. "Working with the time restraints, while trying to keep mass and price down, within the client's stringent design parameters was definitely challenging."

Rimco's innovative Tapered Beam System was a key contributor to the cost and time efficiency of the project. "Considering the magnitude of the structure, the preliminary design and costing was prepared in a matter of days, and offered considerable savings in weight, approximately 30%, as well as savings in costs and delivery of the structural components," explains Mike.

"The beauty of the Rimco Tapered Beam System is the three plate welded beam. We use one plate for each beam flange and the web. This means we can vary the shape of the beams by profiling the web, so there is more steel where it's needed, and less where it's not. The beams weigh less than conventional beams, and because the structure is lighter, you don't have deflection problems."

The beams vary in depth from 750 mm to 1500 mm and weigh about 1.5 tonnes each. "A typical beam would be 17 metres long," says Mike. 1,750 tonnes of 300 grade XLERPLATE® hot rolled plate steel from BlueScope Steel was used to fabricate the beams for the project.

According to David Rolle, "Flexibility of supply and lead times were very important on this project. "We had to be able to produce the structural steel very quickly, we were receiving drawings and cutting the beams in very short time frames. Reliable lead times is one of the reasons we stay with BlueScope Steel, we have been a customer for 18 years."

70 km of LYSAGHT SupaZed® purlins were also used for the plant. The first significant development in the field for decades, the LYSAGHT SupaZed® purlin features longitudinal web stiffeners, which considerably improve its performance, allowing it to span longer expanses with ease.

"With the LYSAGHT SupaZed® purlins we can span greater distances with a smaller section," says Mike. "The web stiffeners on the purlin give it greater strength, so we can also increase the spacing of the purlin set out. The result is that we use less material, which is more economical, which fits well with our philosophy of innovative, efficient client solutions."

"BlueScope Lysaght offered us the technical support and design assistance that we needed for the project," adds Mike.

And it looks like Rimco's innovative approach to steel construction has paid off. "The client is very happy," says David. "The project has been extremely successful."

The Capral Aluminium Extrusion Plant will be completed at the end of 2004.