Biesse partnership powers Wight Aluminium’s evolution and façade fabrication future
Wight Aluminium supplies façades to some of New Zealand’s most complex commercial projects, and over the last 50 years says it has built its reputation as a “trusted, reliable construction partner”.
Central to the company’s evolution and growth is its operating ethos of understanding its clients’ drivers and aspirations, prioritising quality and efficiency, collaborating for optimal project outcomes, and ultimately, a better built environment.
Wight Aluminium is described as one of the leading façade solution providers in New Zealand. The third generation, family-owned business specialises in façade solutions, including curtain walls, unitised systems and cladding.
It operates two manufacturing factories with the primary commercial facility and structural glazing line in Whanganui, and a second factory manufacturing residential and commercial product in Hamilton.
The company works alongside architects, façade consultants and engineers to develop design concepts into fully considered technical solutions, solving complexity and value engineering better project delivery. Taking on projects from multi-storey commercial office buildings to civic projects, hospitals, large-scale residential facilities and hotels, the company has extensive experience in the design, technical detailing, manufacture and installation of building façades.
Collaboration is key
Wight Aluminium has a 50-year partnership with extrusion supplier and window system owner, APL. Over the years, the two companies have collaborated on numerous bespoke project solutions, innovating and evolving standard suite functionality to meet a range of project-specific performance and technical requirements.
The partnership has elevated the possibilities for its commercial and residential project outcomes. In 2022, Wight Aluminum partnered with Biesse, investing in a 5-axis, 2200 x 6400 flat table Rover B CNC for a large cladding project.
“Expanding fabrication capability was always on the radar for us, it was a natural next step in the company evolution and growth strategy,” says Alan Leitner, GM of operations.
He says Wight Aluminium thrives on the opportunity to be part of bringing ambitious architectural designs and high performing buildings to reality, creating smarter, more efficient solutions and a better built environment.
“The new, large table Biesse CNC routing machine, enabled us to deliver at larger scale and fabricate components with greater complexity, stepping up capacity, and capability into advanced materials. It is used to cut and machine flat sheet cladding and other façade components and supports our ambitious goals.”
Strategic investment
“We saw opportunities with large, more ambitious projects. We invested in Biesse equipment to enable us to expand our operations and capability, primarily relating to our curtain wall window systems; fabricating items at larger scale and enabling the realisation of more complex elements than was possible with our existing equipment,” says Leitner.
“There were design constraints with our existing capability. The size and complexity of parametric panel shapes we were starting to see in architectural designs required complex machining and folding that couldn’t be done on our press brake folder. As well as enabling manufacturing at a greater scale, our Biesse CNC machine brought efficiency across production.
“The CNC input comes directly from our 3D modelling, which is created by our design team. I’d worked with a Biesse flatbed CNC router previously and had faith in the capability of Biesse machines to achieve what we needed in aluminium fabrication,” says Leitner.
“We briefed the Biesse team on our needs, constraints and requirements and they responded with a recommended machine to deliver our fabrication needs.”
The first large project the Biesse Rover was used for involved indent sheets two metres wide by six metres long; each sheet forming one half of the shape required to fabricate into the finished panels. With this new Biesse CNC machine, Wight Aluminium is capable of greater volume and higher output. It has given the company the ability to foray into more complex façades and finishes; taking on a broader scope of projects with the confidence it has the right machinery to reliably deliver the high-quality product Wight Aluminium is renowned for.
Trust and support
Leitner says the delivery, installation and training on the new Biesse machine went smoothly and the Biesse team is still regularly in contact, pro-actively checking in and ensuring Wight Aluminium is getting the outcomes it needs.
“They provide good support to our team of programmers – offering training and upskilling to ensure they’re getting most out of the programming and machine. We trust Biesse to ensure we get the most from our investment.”
On Biesse’s commitment to service Leitner says, “We’re based in the regions, away from Biesse’s main base of technicians. We recognised this as a potential risk for machine outages, downtime for servicing and that repairs would potentially include a lot more travel time. To mitigate, Biesse proposed a scheduled pro-active maintenance program for early identification of any issues and to reduce the risk of unscheduled time offline.”
The new Biesse CNC machine is now the mainstay of Wight Aluminium’s production, often running double shifts and meeting all performance expectations. The machine’s efficiency is helping the company to meet its environmental commitments.
“Initially, we anticipated around a 50% run time on the machine, but its capability has allowed us to fabricate a considerably broader range of products, bringing more inhouse, meaning it’s been running consistently higher than 50% for the majority of the time we’ve had it, with minimal downtime or disruption.”
The market opportunity for increased aluminium component fabrication was evident and has extended to façade claddings and full façade offerings. Wight Aluminium’s partnership with Biesse has enabled the company to continue to meet clients’ requirements and expectations now and well into the future.
Kate Bellis, brand manager at Wight Aluminium summed up the partnership: “We’re proud of our history, of our team, and our track record delivering remarkable projects. We’re deeply invested in continuing to build our legacy of excellence and together with Biesse, we will be able to meet the challenges of today and into whatever the future holds.”
Sponsored content: For more information phone 0800 Biesse (243 773) or email info.nz@biesse.com.