It is eight years since the global financial crisis (GFC) started and few would say things are ‘back to normal’. But most companies who survived have adjusted to the new normal of sluggish global growth, and in New Zealand’s case, marginal domestic growth. Looking back its obvious what happened: The GFC caused the purse strings…
The NZMEA are compiling a list of occupations for consideration to the first round of the 2016 Review of Essential Skills in Demand lists (ESID). They are seeking input from companies who are experiencing labour shortages that could be classed as either an Immediate Skill Shortage or a Long Term Skill Shortage. If you are experiencing specific areas of…
Over the past few years, there has been a growing body of anecdotal reports by business about the availability and use of Non-Conforming Products (NCP) in the New Zealand market across many product groups, including steel. Background to building conformance issues The March 2016 MBIE and Commerce Commission announcement that some concrete reinforcing steel mesh supplied into the New…
Thank you to all members who completed the February HERA survey on the questions: Should HERA Support a New Zealand Certificate in Mechanical Engineering Level 5 Program? The 83 responses demonstrated great membership interest in the issue. And in summary there was an overwhelming positive response to the two main questions that our industry wants a…
HERA is pleased to support the International Welding Engineer (IWE) and International Welding Technology run by the University of Wollongong, in cooperation with the WTIA in a newly restructured form. Successful completion of this course will see graduates obtain the globally recognised qualification, International Institute of Welding (IIW) – International Welding Engineer (IWE) or International…
The 69th IIW Annual Assembly and International Conference will be held at Melbourne Convention Exhibition Centre, 10 – 15 July 2016. The IIW Annual Assembly & International Conference is a unique global forum that provides the opportunity for professionals from around the world to share and develop scientific and technical knowledge of welding and related…
Rules for evaluating the design resistance of headed stud connectors through-deck welded within steel decking are provided in NZS 3404.1, 13.3.2.2. Due to the pitch of the ribs in the deck, it is normally not possible to provide enough shear connectors to provide a resistance equivalent to the lesser of: the tensile resistance of the…
In 2009 HERA put a proposal to Government to work with companies to transition them to being innovative and match fit for a competitive export market. While the proposal was not successful, HERA took up the challenge in establishing the Above Ground Geothermal and Allied Technologies (AGGAT) programme which is part funded by MBIE, and…
As members of the steel fabrication chain, we are all aware of the current worldwide steel oversupply situation, leading to steel prices here in New Zealand being at their lowest for some 14 years and virtually unchanged since the HERA steel import statistics started in 2000. This low steel price helps the steel users to…
Our General Manager Structural Systems Dr Stephen Hicks and Finite Element Analyst Nandor Mago have published a peer-reviewed paper in the Journal of Constructional Steel Research. The paper investigates the fire performance of highly utilized and eccentrically loaded concrete filled composite columns with a slenderness greater than currently permitted for the simple calculation model in…
Dr Stephen Hicks has been working with Dr Farhad Aslani, Ryan Lloyd and Prof. Uy of the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety at the University of New South Wales, together with Dr Won-Hee Kang of Western Sydney University, on design rules for the flexural stiffness of composite columns for the forthcoming standard AS/NZS 2327.…
Being in New Zealand, it is easy to sometimes think that we are alone in the world – cut off from the mainstream and doing things our own way. And to some extent that is true, we are geographically isolated, we don’t have a multitude of large corporations driving innovation and pulling our smaller companies…