The first Australian made Kenworth truck rolled off the production line in 1971 at the Kenworth factory in Bayswater, Victoria, where more than 60,000 trucks have since been produced. 

Australia is a vast country with some of the most extreme road transport conditions in the world, where expansive distances are often travelled on unsealed roads with extreme heat, dust and humidity. Each Kenworth truck made in Australia is designed and manufactured with uncompromising quality to meet these most demanding conditions, as well as being purpose-built to individual customer requirements.

Kenworth Australia’s manufacturing facility in Bayswater, Victoria threw up some challenges to effectively heat the interior assembly areas. The established assembly lines with numerous overhead sliding cranes and rails, as well as the very high roof spans meant that it wasn’t just about how to heat the expansive space, but also the need to fit in within the existing infrastructure. Originally, Kenworth employed Warm Air Heating with extensive runs of ductwork and high velocity supply air grilles. The Warm Air system proved unsatisfactory for the large open spaces having up to 15m high rooflines. Comfort was impossible to achieve due to heat stratification and the waste of energy in attempting to heat large volumes of air, which proved highly expensive and commercially unviable. 

Celmec’s tailored heating solution utilised gas-fired Tube Radiant Heaters [TRH’s] which were ideal to fit within the existing structure’s high-level mounting positions. The TRH’s were also the most efficient solution by providing effective low and medium intensity radiant warmth to the assembly areas, focused on warming people and their immediate surroundings. The system paid for itself in energy savings and the level of comfort has been a great success.