Wall Panel Technology, Part I: Wall Panels Become Components Joe Kannapell Driven by the dire shortage of housing entering the 1950s, Levittown sparked a fervor for homes to be built like cars on assembly lines. Fortunately, there was a crop of returning veterans ready to oblige, whether by building whole houses or just parts of houses. William Levett delved into... Read More April 2024 Issue #16297 Page 10
UL Certified Machinery By Spida Wendy Boyd Over the last few weeks and into the next few months, we’re busy outfitting a new Truss, Frame, and Floor Manufacturing site with Spida machinery. All of our installations with customers are something special, and they are all unique with their own set of requirements to make the install... Read More April 2024 Issue #16297 Page 17
How Do We Ensure an Installation of Spida Machinery Goes Well? Wendy Boyd Let’s talk about the most recent installation of a full frame line for Spida Machinery in Pennsylvania. After working alongside the management of the Truss and Panel plant in PA for quite some time – initially talking about their wish list, moving through to budgets and capex,... Read More March 2024 Issue #16296 Page 17
Batch Cutting vs. Cut By Truss Edmond Lim, P.Eng. What weighs more, a pound of muscle or a pound of fat? In truss jargon, the question would be: What produces more trusses, 200 pieces of batch cutting or 200 pieces of cut-by-truss cutting? The answer, of course, is that both cutting methods produce the same number of trusses. So what’s... Read More March 2024 Issue #16296 Page 44
Focusing on Safety with Vekta and Dahlsens Ed Serrano One of the central goals of the frame and truss sector is that everyone goes home safely every day. And while the Razer has been designed from the initial engineering stage with safety at the forefront, some customers, like Dahlsens, require more stringent safety aspects, so we customize... Read More March 2024 Issue #16296 Page 50
Floor Truss Technology, Part IX: Floor Finale Joe Kannapell To complete this floor series, it’s worth examining how we’re doing against I-joists. [For all graphs and images, See PDF or View in Full Issue.] Mixed Signals: Many CMs think trusses are slowly making gains, and this is backed up by the brisk sales of floor machines. However,... Read More February 2024 Issue #16295 Page 10
Reaping the Benefits of the Spida Wall Line System Wendy Boyd Over 7 years ago, we introduced the first of our new generation Spida Wall Extruders to the market. Today, we have taken a massive step further and it just keeps getting better. Recently demonstrated at BCMC 2023, the Spida Raked Wall Extruder can do it all – and it is only one part of an... Read More February 2024 Issue #16295 Page 17
Accommodating Your Catch-as-Catch-Can Edmond Lim, P.Eng. Catching and stacking lumber can make or break productivity at the truss build tables. In an imaginary world where money is irrelevant, a linear saw in front of each automated truss jig would be ideal, cutting pieces in order from, let’s say, 60 ft finger-joined lumber, and robots grabbing... Read More February 2024 Issue #16295 Page 42
The Last Word: Floor Machine Fiascos Joe Kannapell Before leaving the subject of floor trusses, two machines deserve special attention, the Tiger Cat and the Structur-Span. Both included features that were way ahead of their 1970s provenance and both were markedly faster than even present-day machines. Both plated the truss with a single pass,... Read More February 2024 Issue #16295 Page 136
Welcoming a New Year of Partnerships with Spida Wendy Boyd As I sit here thinking about what the New Year will bring for Spida Machinery, I send our warmest gratitude to those customers who became our machinery partners in 2023. I can now bid farewell the challenges of the past 12 months and welcome the promise of a fresh start and new opportunities in... Read More January 2024 Issue #16294 Page 17