NEPEAN: Global Strength, Local Service

Opening its doors in 1974, one of Weld Australia’s newest members NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation is now one of Australia’s largest privately owned engineering service providers. With an elite design and project management team that understands the diverse nature of engineering, NEPEAN produces goods locally from their state-of-the-art facilities in south-west Sydney and delivers to customers all over Australia and globally.

For over 45 years, NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation has maintained a culture that recognises and respects the importance of all participants in the business, focused on building lasting relationships with employees, sub-contractors and customers.

According to NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation General Manager, Peter Buckley, “The organisation was founded in 1974 by David Fuller. With humble beginnings, it grew from a small engineering company into a highly successful and respected integrated engineering business. Today, NEPEAN employs over 1,500 people across eight countries worldwide, and is led by CEO Miles Fuller, son of David. NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation employs over 150 employees at our site in Narellan.”

NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation has the depth, diversity, capability and experience to successfully deliver on the largest and most complex engineering projects. Their engineering services are supported by extensive facilities, including over 50,000m 2 of workshop space, inhouse design, a fully equipped stateof-the-art CNC and machine shop, steel fabrication workshop, laser cutting, sheet metal, shot blasting, painting and powder coat finishing.

“With large CNC machines, precision manufacturing and structural steel capabilities, through to laser cutting, our own blasting and painting facilities and installation capabilities, we are truly an integrated engineering business—we really do have everything under the one roof,” said Buckley.

Major Clients and Projects

“We’ve always worked with the best customers, providing the highest quality products for some of the most complex projects. We regularly work with industry experts like Lendlease and Hutchinson Builders on projects requiring upwards of 2,000 tonnes of steel.”

NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation recently completed work on the 60 Martin Place building in Sydney for Lendlease. NEPEAN manufactured, erected and assembled many components, including three 43 tonne steel transfer trusses, measuring 4.5m high and 21m long, that were installed in the building’s plantroom. NEPEAN also fabricated and installed a challenging five-level steel frame clad staircase in the building’s foyer.

Top: A large scale mining conveyer supplied by NEPEAN to Narrabri mine in New South Wales Bottom: A welder working at NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation's facilities in south-west Sydney.

As part of the NorthConnex project—designed to link the M1 Pacific Motorway at Wahroonga to the Hills M2 Motorway at West Pennant Hills—integration work was essential along the Hills M2 Motorway. NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation was awarded the subcontract for structural steel works through the head contractor, the Lendlease Bouygues Joint Venture. With the project requiring approximately 300 tonnes of steel, NEPEAN met all project logistics and design development requirements, as well as tight scheduling, to deliver a highly successful project.

Another of NEPEAN’s most recognisable projects is 8 Chifley Square in Sydney. The highly distinctive appearance of the highrise is largely due to the massive, colourful steel elements supplied by NEPEAN – the braces on the façade and the struts that help create a fivestorey public space at ground level. Through their Mastermesh® Brand, NEPEAN also supplied over 3,000m 2 of perforated metal panels to clad two external stairs on both façades.

8 Chifley Square in Sydney. The distinctive appearance of the high-rise is due to the massive colourful elements supplied by NEPEAN.

The two largest mega struts supplied by NEPEAN on 8 Chifley Square weighed a massive 37 tonnes and 30 tonnes, with each strut measuring 18.5m in length. The installation window for the 37 tonne mega strut was just three to four hours, and only one hour for the 30 tonne strut, including all reinforced steel cage connections.

A Competitive Advantage

According to Buckley, “Our success is aligned with our customers’ success. To ensure we can deliver successful outcomes to all our clients, we employ and train the best. To continually develop our organisation and deliver quality project outcomes, it is vital to invest in our people. We have had five apprentices commence in 2020, along with two graduate engineers and additional engineering and professional staff.”

“Team members resourced to each job are hand-picked according to specific project requirements in terms of experience, specialist skills and problem-solving capabilities. We are proud of the deep relationships with our employees, with many engineers, project managers and tradespeople employed with our company for over 25 years,” said Buckley.

Buckley believes that NEPEAN’s new Weld Australia membership will help them deliver quality outcomes and upskill their workforce further.

“NEPEAN only aligns itself with the best, so it was a natural fit to align ourselves with Weld Australia. Weld Australia has a great reputation and great resources for our workforce. We will benefit from being aligned with the industry leading association, and our employees will be able to learn from Weld Australia’s resources and deliver better outcomes for our clients,” said Buckley.

An Optimistic Outlook

Buckley believes that the future of Australian manufacturing is strong, and expects the industry to rebound from the COVID-19 impact, with NEPEAN well-placed to support existing and new customers. “I am really optimistic about the manufacturing sector as a whole as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last few months, we’ve really seen companies going back to Australian manufacturing as a core principle, instead of relying on cheaper imports from overseas. Clients are, once again, starting to recognise the value of a guaranteed local supplier, and seem to be willing to pay that little bit more for Australian quality and service.”

“In fact, one of the biggest challenges for us at the moment is expanding to meet our customers’ needs. Just within the last few weeks, we have put on two shifts. Our facilities are now operating around the clock to ensure we can keep up supply for customers demand,” said Buckley.

“NEPEAN only aligns itself with the best, so it was a natural fit to align ourselves with Weld Australia. Weld Australia has a great reputation and great resources for our workforce. We will benefit from being aligned with the industry leading association, and our employees will be able to learn from Weld Australia’s resources and deliver better outcomes for our clients