Part V: The Gantry Gains Ground The roller gantry had two major obstacles to clear in the 1970s, both erected by its inventor, Carroll Sanford. Both were delineated in hard-to-evade U.S. Patents. The first was on the machine itself and the second was on the connector plate that it required....

Corona Virus or Covid-19 has undoubtedly turned the world in which we live, work, socialize, learn, and play upside down. As I write this in the last week of March, we are starting a 4-week shutdown of our manufacturing facility in New Zealand and a 2-week shutdown period for both Indianapolis...

No doubt that as I am writing this, many of us have had to turn our focus to our families, our friends, and our businesses as the COVID-19 virus has rapidly spread throughout North America. The impact to many has been requirements to shelter families in their homes, except for critical functions...

Continuing our articles series on better tools for wall panel design, it’s time to start talking about parametric 3D. So, what is parametric 3D and what does it mean for you? According to Wikipedia, “Parametric design is a process based on algorithmic thinking that enables the...

Alpine’s STITCHER software delivers significant savings for APEX Technology’s bidding and design tasks The Product STITCHER is a unique software tool developed by Alpine to free component estimators and designers from repetitive tasks and to speed both bidding and production...

Whenever a site builder asks me why they should go modular, they are really asking me how they can make more money going modular. Some of them are long time site builders that have looked at converting to modular construction and just can’t bring themselves to pull the trigger. It’s...

The Modular Building Institute's 37th Annual Convention & Tradeshow at Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando, Florida The Modular Building Institute graciously allowed The Advertiser to cover its 37th Annual World of Modular Convention and Tradeshow held March 9-12, 2020 in Orlando,...

Part IV: Early Roller Gantries The roller gantry dominates today’s truss production, but it hasn’t always done so, despite the fact that it hasn’t changed much over sixty years. The reason for its relatively slow ascendency is found in its origins and in its adaptations over...

We’re now starting the daunting but exciting task of planning for the next Building Component Manufacturers Conference, being held September 22–25 in Indianapolis, IN. As we gear up, we ask ourselves – what is the most important piece of equipment to show, what is the message...

Building components is really great! It was a lot of fun in the 1970s when several plants had competitions on who could build the fastest run of trusses (for example, see Joe Kannapell’s article, Vertical Presses—The World Record). Back then, it was really easy to calculate cycle...