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 the difference?
Truss fabricators are the original offsite component manufacturers (CMs) circa 1960, promoting a proud industry that has had automated sawing and truss jigging for many decades. What started the push for automation was the complexity of trusses and CMs’ passion to provide customer service to produce trusses for setting onto top plates in the correct (collated) order. [For all photos, See PDF or View in Full Issue.]
Automated component saws fueled higher throughput of batched cutting. Cut by truss on a component saw depended on the minimum quantity of the same truss before it was unproductive. Material handling of lumber to component saws has not changed much, and the majority of component saws are still being fed lumber with forklift-picked lumber to this day.
Batch cutting resulted in extra set-up time at the truss build tables which are now easily “million dollar tables” with auto jigging and laser projection. What is the ROI of 30-second jig set-ups when you have to account for material staging in front of the tables? Experienced truss builders would know to down-stack lumber in front of the tables from the batch cutting to help them build more efficiently, especially on longer span trusses.
The linear saw quickly became the saw of choice for many CMs because of the number of different truss set-ups. Linear saws and the appeal of “lumber optimizing” also known as “lumber stretching” resulted in “mini batches.” A linear saw with lumber optimizing allowed CMs to get lazy with material in-feed, cutting from just 4 to 6 bunks of lumber in front of the saw. However, lumber optimizing created a mess behind the saws, which would be left to the truss builders to descramble and hunt for pieces at the tables. Mini batches resulted in a lot of additional paperwork and a lot of starting and stopping getting carts out of and back in front of the truss build tables to set up for the next truss. But this reduced some of the material staging time required.
With a little more labor, time, and effort at the linear saw at the expense of throughput, two carts could be used to re-organize and stack the lumber collated for the truss builders.
When a CM phases out their component saw and puts all their cutting into the linear saw basket, they eventually wish they still had a component saw. The 240 pieces shown in the third photo will slow down a linear saw and will need to be down-stacked at the table in order to build productively.
Now it’s clear that cutting alone is not enough – you need to consider the whole process.
With the magic of the Enventek SpeedCatch, you can optimize your cutting process. Shown in this photo are about 200 collated cut-by-truss pieces spread out over 32 ft. They require no down-stacking, no hunting for lumber, and no excessive repeat travel. And, all of this is accomplished with no lumber-catching labor, in a process that’s standardized to boost truss production at all tables.
These lumber carts are only “half full,” so entire roofs can be built as per top plate placement in front of the same jig.
Shown on the left side of the photo below is a pallet jack and skid of small parts cut on another saw (the RetroC will not cut less than 2 ft in automatic mode). In this situation, the truss builders don’t even bother moving the pallet jack to the right side of the jig, as the front of table truss builder only needs to gather 13 small pieces to carry back to the right side of the truss.
Most importantly, an Enventek Lumber PickLine can feed any component saw cut-by-truss lumber, eliminate saw idle time, reduce forklift operating costs, and boost truss production. For more proof, see my article, Feed Any Component Saw With a Lumber PickLine.
An Enventek Lumber PickLine can also feed any linear saw to get the best of both worlds by reducing lumber optimizing while improving cut-by-truss lumber collation. For another real-life example, see my article, Optimize Your Saw with a Lumber PickLine.
Lastly, a Fully Loaded RetroC with SpeedCatch is the ultimate in-line truss production system, as shown in my article, In-Line Truss Production Starts With Lumber Picking. When you’re ready to Feed Your Beast and see these efficient and effective systems for yourself, let us know! https://limteksolutions.com/#solutions