GSTech Engineering

Superunification by artist Ruth Lyons was commissioned by Cosgrave Developments for Honey Park Apartments in Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin. The sculpture consisted of two 406 mm tubes rolled into a spiralling curve that resembles a double helix in DNA. Each tube was hot rolled into 12 segments and then joined together to make each spiralling tube.  

The height of each full spiral is 12 metres tall.  Skilled fabricators cut each section to the correct length and joined each piece at the exact rotation to create the spiralling tube. To ensure alignment, the two tubes were then placed together and joined at the top and bottom of the sculpture.

Due to the overall size of the sculpture, it was not possible to galvanize the sculpture in one piece. As a result of this, the sculpture had to be separated into two pieces again and dipped individually. When designing the sculpture, stainless steel was considered for the base material as the sculpture is in close proximity to the sea. A decision was made to use mild steel tubing that was then galvanized as it dramatically reduced the cost of project but still gave the long-lasting corrosive protection required for the project.  

Once the two pieces were galvanized, they were then bolted together at the base and welded at the top of the sculpture. The top of the sculpture was then treated with a high zinc content paint to ensure the corrosive protection was maintained throughout the entire sculpture. 

Finally, the sculpture was lightly sanded to remove any imperfections from the galvanizing process and painted to artists required colour.

GSTech Engineering are incredibly proud of the work that was done to create Superunifcation.