Ian apparently collapsed and was involved in a Road incident.   Sadly Ian died at the scene of the accident last night.

Ian has been our steadfast and most capable leader for 17 years now and was due to retire pretty soon. Our heartfelt appreciation of his exemplary service to the Crane Association of New Zealand goes out to his family.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10871359

Perfectly suited for small-to-medium areas of coverage, the range of Architectural Single-use Vac-U-Form liners from Reid provide precasters, tilt-up contractors and insitu formworkers with a cost-effective option for patterned concrete detail, without the need to invest heavily in traditional timber or rubber formliners.  Read more here…

Our office and warehouse will be closed from Friday 21st December and reopen on Monday 7th January 2013.

See you in the New Year! 

Please can we ask that all your orders are in BEFORE this time so that we can get couriered items away to you for the following day. We are sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause.  Orders can be taken for despatch Monday morning by our customer service team.  Please refer to your sales representative for further information.

http://www.specialz.co.nz/onlinenewsletter/view-email-newsletter.aspx?ID=19906873&e=155547&d=wxty8ZrXDTdL9/fDaBDK8Q

Due to a wide frontage, it made it necessary to access the Riverwood factory and offices from a side street. As a result, the need for a retaining wall more than 1200mm high was required. Colin decided on a two piece Missouri Old Cut Ashlar stone pattern (#16988) to provide an aesthetically appealing pattern which minimized repetition.

Rather than use a single use formliner, Colin invested in a Graylastic Elastomeric formliner, which are bonded to 19mm plywood to eliminate any distortion. GrayLastic liners are heavy duty and are suitable for up to 100 re-uses.  The formliners manufactured at 1220mm x 1220mm were matched end to end enabling Colin to in-situ cast 10 metre sections at a time, including a capping beam on top.

A polyurethane sealer was then used in the seams – just like a normal tilt panel. The joins of the two liners are virtually impossible to pick. Once the wall was finished, the last step was to give it a coat of paint.

Viewing the wall after the landscaping was completed, Colin stated “that we had to hide the bottom of the wall with a thick driveway to get the falls, but that doesn’t take it away from the drama and impressiveness of what we made”.

At 1220mm square, the formliners are now stacked on a pallet for easy storage and transportation for future projects. Colin will be able to take these liners and repeat this casting process, making them a great investment for their business.

For further information on the variety of formliner patterns available, visit www.formliners.com or email us at sales@reids.co.nz

Nirvana was specified for the WesTrac new premises, a purpose built facility to house its Truck Parts and Service Centre in Tomago, Newcastle. The building, some 45,200m2 was designed using insulated precast panels and secured to a steel framed building.

CIA Precast in Newcastle won the project and production manager, Tony Robinson decided to use the Nirvana system because Reid was able to provide a design that required pins to be set at 600mm centres, instead of 450mm. “We decided to use the Nirvana system because we could use 40% less pins in the insulated panels, reducing congestion between the pins and reinforcing. This made the process much faster and provided us with cost savings of up to 30%”.

Nirvana connector pins lock the insulation layer between the internal concrete structure layer and the external concrete wythe. Made from pultruded epoxy backboned resin for maximised corrosion resistance and inter-laminar shear strength, the pins have undergone pullout and shear testing certification for use in local and international markets.

Tony was impressed with the ease of the whole process at his precast plant. The panels, ranging from 12 to 16.5 tonnes, were manufactured with a 150mm structural layer, 50mm of insulation and a 60mm outer wythe. The 150mm structural layer was poured face down first before Tony’s team placed the preprepared insulation board and mesh to pour the second layer. In total, the turnaround time for the second pour was 90 minutes.

Pouring the structural panel face down has some clear advantages. While panels cast this way are not the most common method, this does provide a clean, smooth finish for the interior walls in situations where they might be left exposed or are coloured.

There are some considerations that must be taken into account casting this way, such as height of the panels for transportation and edge lifting versus face lifting, for lifting and placing the panels on site. Working with the precast manufacturer and Reid from the beginning of the project, will save design time and ongoing site issues.

The completed project is ultra-modern in design and using the Nirvana insulated panel system, has given the owners a sustainable building that will provide ongoing efficiencies and energy savings.

For more information on Nirvana, contact our technical sales and engineering teams on sales@itwcsanz.com.