Industry 4.0 is driving an unprecedented transformation across global industry, as new technologies promise to save time, boost productivity, reduce waste, expand business models, and be more responsive to fast-changing environments and consumer demands. While companies have the opportunity to position themselves at the forefront of this new Industry 4.0 wave, they can struggle to…
HERA has identified a need for greater uptake of Industry 4.0 technologies to improve productivity in the construction industry. At the same time, we are also building our own capabilities in Industry 4.0 focusing on Construction 4.0, in particular in what we have coined “Fabrication 4.0”,”Sustainability 4.0” and “Monitoring 4.0”. We have already previously announced…
We’re excited to let industry know that Fanqin Meng has joined our Structural Systems team to assist with our focus on structural fire performance research. Fanqin is joining the HERA Structural team for a six month period to contribute to two key structural fire projects. These projects will be conducted in collaboration with the University…
Steel structures performed exceptionally well during the February 22, 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Such earthquake performance confirms that steel is the ultimate low-damage solution for modern multi-story buildings and structures. The performance also showed that the applicable New Zealand design and fabrication standards are safe – even though some minor damage in steel structures were reported…
We’d like to advise industry that a Heavy Engineering Research Levy Act Amendment Order 2021 was signed by the Governer-General on 5 July and published 8 July. This has been something that we have been working on with the MBIE innovation policy team and Customs for quite some time. MBIE’s role has been to coordinate…
Data on the cool down phase for timber structures is something designers and regulators need to consider when it comes to load carrying capacity of CLT structures. This thinking comes about after noting an interesting paper in the recent issue of Fire Safety Journal highlighting the critical aspect of the cool down phase for timber…
While critical technical aspects associated with treated timber in construction remain unsolved, the ‘wood first policy’ is the wrong decision at the wrong time. There needs to be better science based understanding of fire safety and health and environment issues. We need only look at treated timber data in New Zealand, issues associated with treated…
HERA is pleased to report the release of our updated Living Standards Framework assessment and supporting resources. This comes following our work which started in 2018 when we commissioned BERL to assess the metal industry’s contribution to the NZ economy using the Living Standards Framework (LSF). That was a pivotal publication as it was the…
Our recently commissioned HERA Report R5-89 shows steel plays a key role in the circular economy. The study was undertaken by thinkstepANZ and showed an impressive 72% of steel scrap in New Zealand is recycled, and that recycling steel scrap produced in Aotearoa New Zealand provides significant environmental benefits – despite the need for transport…
Aotearoa New Zealand’s construction industry reached over $15 billion in 2019, making it a major contributor to GDP and employment, as well as developer of critical national infrastructure. Despite this, it’s an industry that requires radical transformation and has long been criticised for its low productivity, inefficiencies, and contribution to New Zealand’s carbon emissions. It requires…
A recent technical study has come to HERA’s attention as it highlights our stance that you should choose infrastructure material based on design parameters. The technical study that we refer to was performed by the structural engineering firm Cary Kopczynski & Company in Seattle, WA. It compared the affordability of a hypothetical 10-story residential building…
A recent John Hopkins University Report validates our concerns at HERA around the lack of data and baseless assumptions relating to mass timber performance in high rise buildings. This is not a new conversation for HERA. We have previously raised concern about the lack of research relating to the fire performance of building materials generally…