Why truss manufacturers are turning to purple
hyCHORD, the distinctive purple LVL truss chords, have been engineered specifically for truss applications. In a recent residential retirement development in one of Sydney’s Western most suburbs, hyCHORD helped Peter Garnett of Prospect Frame and Truss fabricate scissor trusses for the indoor swimming pool roof with fabrication in a third of the time and with a third of the sweat. A truss manufacturer who likes to use new and innovative products, Prospect Frame and Truss have made hyCHORD a key component in their production process.
In May of this year the first stage of the Jourdan Gardens Estate retirement village at Currans Hill commenced. The village consists of 65 residential units in total, with its own indoor swimming pool and separate community centre. Prospect Frame and Truss, a Sydney based Frame and Truss fabricator, subcontracted for the supply of the prefabricated wall frames and roof trusses for both stages of the development. Delivery of stage one, which includes the indoor pool area and community centre, is now complete.
Prospect Frame and Truss specialise in the supply of prefabricated trusses for a variety of commercial and owner/builder clients and in this case recent innovations with their product, using hyCHORD, proved to be a great advantage.
Stage one required the fabrication of scissor trusses for the roofs of both the community centre and the indoor pool. The community centre trusses were manufactured using hardwood bottom chords causing great difficulties in both the pressing of the plates and the handling of the trusses due to their weight. This led Peter to consider the use of hyCHORD for the pool trusses which were of similar design and span to those of the community centre.
Peter Garnett explains, “The pressing process using hardwood was very slow and time consuming and trying to keep the hardwood straight was a difficult task. We have used hyCHORD before and found that by using this product the plates were easy to press into place. The product had the strength for the job, was straight and the trusses were much lighter and easier to handle.”
Ultimately the hyCHORD was used as a major component in the trusses for the pool replacing both the top and bottom chords resulting in much lighter trusses with less joins that took one third of the time to manufacture.
Prospect Frame and Truss was introduced to hyCHORD by Swan Le Messurier, a wholesale distributor in Sydney, who were keen to incorporate hyCHORD into their truss manufacturing process. “We are proud of the quality of our product and are willing to try new products which help provide quality and efficiency.”
One of the great advantages of using the hyCHORD in trusses has been the availability of long lengths which gives great time savings in the reduction of the number of joins and cutting time.
One story Peter tells does illustrate the difference an innovative, engineered building product like hyCHORD can make. Prospect Frame and Truss had to make a large span double girder truss (where two identical trusses are placed one on top of the other in the jig and then nailed together), a process that usually takes quite a considerable amount of time. Peter commented to the truss makers that the girder did not take very long to make and his jig setter said, “When you use that purple stuff it just lines up. When you use hardwood you’ve got to fight with it to keep it straight.”
Peter and his staff at Prospect Frame and Truss have incorporated the use of hyCHORD as an integral part of their production process.
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