Michael Lette, one of BlueScope’s downstream businesses, made the manufacturer’s case for steel: prefabricated panels fixed on only two sides, folded so they become their own flashing, screws hidden in a channel, and a certified test lab behind them. The proof was Western Australia’s rail, seven stations, 20,000 pieces made in Melbourne, over 100 square metres a day going up.
Lysaght and Fielders together form BlueScope’s façade design and solutions arm. Known for Aramax, Colorbond and structural flooring, the business frames its offer around three pillars: labour, meaning efficiency; design, meaning customisation; and compliance, meaning validated testing, backed by a NATA-certified test lab at Minchinbury in Sydney.
The efficiency argument is physical. Because the panels are fixed on only two sides and arrive pre-punched and pre-drilled, install crews are small and quick, on the Western Australian projects, more than 100 square metres a day, finished, straight out of the crate and onto the wall. The systems run from Azora, a simple lift-and-fix panel, and Horizon, a roll-formed panel up to 600 mm wide and 8 metres long, to Aramax, whose 20-metre clear spans take a great deal of steel structure out of a building.
Detailing is where Lette made the aesthetic case. Panels are folded so that they become their own flashing and drip line in one; screws are colour-matched and hidden in a 25 mm channel, so you barely see them unless you look straight on; access panels face-fix, so a wall can be opened up whenever it needs to be; and lights, cameras and vents are run through the panels themselves.
The proof was Western Australia’s rail. Seven stations, Armadale, Cannington, Carlisle and more, took Lysaght steel across ceilings, walls, service booms and coffers. For Armadale the team even made curved, non-90-degree panels that copied the curves of the GRC above, and cross-panel ceilings with lighting built in and the supporting steel removed. Across two projects, roughly 20,000 pieces were made in Melbourne and shipped west, with impact resistance tuned to the 1.2 kPa demanded of railway stations.
Behind all of it sits the test lab. Lysaght tests for strength, impact, connection, fire and weather, the Azora system reaching into the mid-2 kPa range on the AS 4284 weather test with a membrane backing, which, Lette argued, is what gives architects the confidence to push a design and still comply. The ambition he set out was broader than any one panel: to grow the use of Colorbond steel and change how Australia builds.