Hebel panels are well-known to be quick and easy to install, but the work has become even quicker and easier for Powerwall with the Y-Lift which Jason developed. He worked over a number of years to build and refine the system which increases the speed and efficiency with which his work crews can install the Hebel wall panels.
The Y-Lift system, for which CSR has since bought the patent rights, utilises a winch which slides into tracks on a gantry. The Hebel panels are secured and lifted by the winch into the required position from where they can be lowered easily between newly constructed party walls or boundary walls with little physical labour entailed.
As well as facilitating the process, the Y-Lift system saves valuable time compared, for example, with the more traditional method of installing Hebel party walls in low rise multi-residential buildings.
“Without a system like the Y-Lift, you have to build each wall frame, then install the Hebel before building the next frame, and so on,” said Jason.
“This means the ‘chippies’ – the carpenters – have to go away after building one frame section while the Hebel is installed, and then come back and do the next frame. The Hebel installers, in their turn, have to come back several times, installing the panels frame by frame as each frame is built.”
With the Y-Lift system, the builder can put the whole frame up without stopping and starting, leaving a cavity for the Hebel panels. We then come in before the roof sheets go on, set the gantry system up and use the winch to place the panels.