Our Article Library

When engineers Cal Jureit, Walter Moehlenpah, and Bill McAlpine witnessed the impressive launch of the IBM System/360 in July 1964, they surely suspected that computers could bring relief from the increasing burden of special engineering requests. Even though none could afford the System/360,...

Spec sheets for truss assembly machinery describe the press: tonnage, roller diameter, table length. They say less about the software, yet on an automated table the software decides where the pucks go, where the truss sits, how much of the table is in use, and what happens when the next truss...

Silence. It’s one of the worst things a factory owner can hear Monday morning. Instead of the air compressors humming to life, saws calibrating, and forklift back-up alerts echoing throughout the floor, the only thing felt is the deafening reality of a stalled line. If you’ve...

Need to improve your truss plant production? AI may be the answer for you. Using information and knowledge you already have, you can work with AI to streamline your production workflow with a few basic prompts. One of the best things about using AI is that no prior training is required....

This month’s article returns to a topic begun last month in “Inside Early Truss Design”: the movement of design technology from the drafting board to the computer. During this period, the only tools available were engineering theory and painstaking manual work. Specialized...

The question posed in the title, “are you a clicker or a stickler,” encourages you to examine just how apt you are to “click through” the steps in front of you versus carefully reviewing each item. Moreover, you should ask – are people in my organization paying...

It was great to attend another BCMC this year in Columbus, reconnect with so many incredible people from across the country and around the world, and see the projects and innovations that continue to drive our industry forward. For nearly two decades, I have attended this show in a variety of...

Thank you to everyone who visited our booth at this year’s Building Component Manufacturers Conference (BCMC) in Columbus, OH. Our booth transformed into a component manufacturer’s shop floor, showcasing how MiTek’s connected ecosystem of automation, software, engineering, and...

If you visited our BCMC booth in Columbus this year, then you got a close-up look at NEXBOT, an optional autonomous mobile robot (AMR) upgrade for NEXPLATE. Enventek has joined the growing list of suppliers bringing robotics to component plants, continuing our tradition of delivering practical,...

Imagine, if you will, two different component manufacturers (CMs) owned by the same parent company bidding against each other on the same project. Each location wants the order. As they compete on price, they drive down their own company’s revenue and gross margin. One location may win the...