LYSAGHT SupaZed® Solution for Rimco's Eleventh Bunnings Store

Leading steel design and engineering firm, Rimco Building Systems has begun work on its eleventh Bunnings warehouse construction project.

Rimco is a specialist and innovator in the design, manufacture and installation of structural steel for large portal frame buildings.

On the latest Bunnings project, at Caloundra on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, it is combining the benefits of its Rimco Tapered Beam system with those of the SupaZed® purlin system from BlueScope Lysaght.

Rimco is a family company, established in 1986, by managing director David Rolle. It has generated strong growth by providing a combination of innovative design and quick turn around on all the projects it has tackled.

"We first won a Bunnings project back in 1998," David Rolle said. "A local construction company was building a Bunnings warehouse at Burleigh Heads when we arrived on an adjacent site, to build a new Billabong factory, a larger building."

"The builders were impressed by our design and efficiency in erection, particularly the fact that we were finished before the Bunnings job. On the basis of that performance we were invited to tender for Bunnings work and have won several projects since."

Rimco is determined to maintain its competitive advantage and was an early adopter of LYSAGHT SupaZed® purlins. David sees them as an innovative building solution along the same lines as the Rimco Tapered Beam System.

"What you are trying to achieve in any large building is a framing solution which saves time and weight without sacrificing strength," David said. "That’s what our Tapered Beam System and LYSAGHT SupaZed® purlins both provide."

Over 14,500 lineal metres of LYSAGHT SupaZed® purlins were specified for the new Bunnings warehouse at Caloundra.

"There was a definite advantage in specifying the LYSAGHT SupaZed® purlins for the Caloundra building," David said. The site is on open ground near the airport and wind loadings are above average.

"We are using a 250 size purlin there. If we were using anything else but SupaZed® we would have had to go to a 300 size. They would have been significantly heavier and cost more and there would have been higher freight costs and higher erection costs.

"Bunnings warehouses are generally specified with 250 size purlins, so the ability to retain that size minimised the changes which were needed for the engineering drawings at Caloundra. On the practical side, our workers are very happy that we decided to go with the SupaZed® purlins because they make their task easier."

The Rimco workforce earlier this year completed one of Queensland’s largest SupaZed® installations, fitting 70 kilometres to the frame of the Capral aluminium extrusion plant at Bundamba, west of Brisbane.

Rimco also recently completed a Bunnings warehouse at Stafford in Brisbane, using SupaZed® purlins.

LYSAGHT® SupaPurlins are available in SupaCee® and SupaZed® configurations. Both types feature longitudinal web stiffeners, which considerably improve their performance and allow longer spans.

The innovative SupaPurlins design allows increased spacing and fewer rows of bridging, for maximum cost efficiency. It also provides extra strength without a weight penalty.

LYSAGHT® SupaPurlins are manufactured on state-of-the-art equipment and are offered on a project by project basis with full technical support. Support includes sophisticated new software to help customers to optimise designs to take advantage of the SupaPurlin specification.