Techlam’s beautiful and award winning glulam structures are showcased in Wellington International Airport, the Hutt Valley Health Club, the CCCS Jubilee Church in Western Samoa. and more recently the curved laminated timber beams in the new wing of Jackson Orchard’s packhouse in Central Otago. In recent times Techlam has been working closely with Land Transport Agency Waka Kotahi on using mass timber in their infrastructure such as bridges, to reduce their carbon footprint. From a one-man joinery and laminating business operating from a home garage Techlam has evolved over 30 years to become New Zealand’s largest glulam facility.
Designing, manufacturing and supplying engineered timber products throughout New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific, Techlam is now a multi-million dollar enterprise employing a team of over 50 skilled and highly motivated staff.
Brett Hamilton, CEO of Techlam, states: “Skill sets with our team range from general plant hand right through to qualified prefabrication carpenters, CNC operators and machine operators. We offer a lot of cross training across the organisation. We try to identify emerging leaders and grow them through the business. All our team leaders and leadership team go through progressive levels of leadership training, delivered by external providers. Some of our people have been with us for over thirty years.”
Reflecting on the team culture, Brett uses the analogy of what Techlam does as a business - taking smaller pieces of timber and combining them to make them a single strong structure. “That is what our team is like. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses and we combine those to create a very strong team. Our culture is the glue that holds it all together.”
Skilled people and high technology: a winning combination
The company chose to purchase a new technological solution that will allow this exceptional team to make a further leap in quality. It is a 6-axis “oikos xl” CNC machining centre capable of processing glulam products, taking the company to the next level in terms of volumes, capacity and accuracy. The “oikos xl”, manufactured by Italian firm SCM, allows automatic management and continuous processing of engineered timber elements with weight up to 4000kg and cross-section up to 1,250x500mm.
“This will mean a huge percentage of our glulam will be going through this centre,” says Brett “Beams are loaded in one end of the machine, and it will process them, cut them, slot them, drill them, label them, all to 100% accuracy. The product is delivered to site, ready to install, and that makes it so much easier for our clients, especially on some of the remote sites where labour is not always readily available.”
The purchase and commissioning of the new CNC machine is part of Techlam’s sustainable manufacturing project that was initiated late 2022.
Richard Loader for Business Central magazine
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