Chapter 6
I Construction During The Settlement Years
II The Use Of Timber As A Structural Material
III Structural Steel
IV Concrete Technology
V Housing
VI Industrialised Pre-cast Concrete Housing
VII Ports And Harbours
VIII Roads
IX Heavy Foundations
X Bridges
XI Sewerage
XII Water Engineering
XIII Railways
XIV Major Buildings
XV Airports
XVI Thermal Power Stations
XVII Materials Handling
XVIII Oil Industry
XIX The Snowy Mountains Scheme
XX The Sydney Opera House
XXI The Sydney Harbour Bridge
XXII Hamersley Iron
XXIII North West Shelf
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In the 1960s many new developments occurred which made a significant contribution to Australian timber engineering. Possibly the most notable was the development of the automated truss industry. This industry now produces roof trusses, finely engineered by computerised systems, for 50 per cent of all new house construction in Australia. Another development was the engineered application of structural plywood, which now accounts for the use of some 80 per cent of all Australian produced plywood. These applications include concrete formwork, flooring, wall bracing systems and long span box beams.
The 1960s also saw construction of the first commercial pressure treatment plants for the preservative impregnation of timber; until then the only such plants in Australia were those owned and used solely by public utilities. Two other significant developments of the 1960s were the production of a commercial machine for mechanically stress grading timber, and the commercial application of gluing technology to fabricate structural components. This last development has been useful for producing large sizes of strong structural members through laminating or gluing together planks of timber, unidirectional plywood veneers, squashed timber and sliced flakes of wood; this technology shows considerable promise for the future.
Numerous new technical developments are in progress today. Currently Australia is a world leader in the application of timber technology for house frame construction; our framing techniques and automated roof truss construction industry are both among the world's best. The potential of today's technology for application to large structures has, however, yet to be realised, and will probably need to await an improvement in the education and quality control aspects of our timber engineering.
People in Bright Sparcs - Leicester, Dr R. H.
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Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering |  |
© 1988 Print Edition page 321, Online Edition 2000
Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher
http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/319.html