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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,...

The shape of today’s truss plates was greatly influenced by their little-understood production processes. While these processes involve proprietary methods, their underlying technology was conceived decades ago in the tool and die shops and the punch press plants across America, and both...

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...

Seeing everyone at BCMC and talking about how far we’ve come as an industry, I was reminded of what a visionary we had in Tommy Wood. Like FedEx founder Fred Smith, Tommy was born and raised in Marks, Mississippi — a small-town beginning for a man with big ideas. Lowell Thomas...

I recently talked with Lenny Sylk and Dick Rotto, two of the most consequential figures in component manufacturing. They are men whose legacies are worth knowing, even a half century distant from their industry-founding work.  Both were consummate entrepreneurs, with the guts to start...

Given the recent, unexpected passing of John “Chip” Dean, I thought it only right to begin this new series on Truss Design Technology with reflections I collected from him. Three years ago, knowing Chip’s background as an iconic truss designer and pioneer in our industry, I...

Despite wide recognition of the Hikel name, the Hikel’s themselves would point to their long-tenured people for their success. In fact, the youngest of their three generations, Ryan, said at their 50-year celebration on July 24, “We’re not the Hikel family, we’re the...

After nearly 40 years in sales in the structural wood component industry, and with countless trusses and wall panels behind him, Jay Halteman has nevertheless summarily been shown the door – and by his own two progeny, to boot. His long, tiresome and haggled-over retirement is effective...

As discussed in The Last Word in May, “John Houlihan’s Contributions,” John Houlihan introduced a proven way to manage plant labor, applying his trade to plant systems as they were, rather than how they could be, which was reflective of his background outside our industry. When...

Six decades of partnership, practical innovation, and growth: That is the legacy Alpine® celebrates as it marks its 60th anniversary. Turning the big 6-0 is something that hits some people hard, while others consider themselves lucky to reach that milestone. But a business in a competitive...