Some surprises are in store at the BCMC Show this year, especially the stunning news that the biggest robotics maker won’t be there and won’t be showing up anywhere. But, the demise of House of Design (HoD) wasn’t because of their equipment, which worked serviceably (for more on that topic, see my recent post on Truss Tales, “What Can We Learn from the Demise of House of Design?”). This anomaly should not deter BCMC attendees from examining the proven automation solutions on the Show floor. But in order to be successful, buyers must have an automation driver in their shop, like Brian Hunter, Keith Fell, or Gary Luttrell (see this month’s Wall Panel Technology, Part VII on page 10 and last month’s “Wall Panel Technology, Part VI: Panel Equipment Innovations” for those stories).
In fact, over the years we’ve seen numerous notable introductions of automated equipment at BCMC Shows. Even if specific innovations didn’t succeed, they often presaged the equipment that most plants employ today. All resulted from the hard work of intrepid entrepreneurs, at least one of which is still innovating today, and the following are a few examples.
Fiasco to Triumph: In 1982, Truswal brought the first vertical truss assembly machine to the third BCMC machinery show in Louisville, KY. Imported from Canada with great expectations, this was to be the first machine to crank out trusses at the show. Just before the show’s opening, Truswal techs laid the lumber and metal webs into the mechanical monster, hit the start button, and the plated truss was hurled out the end of the machine, ramming into the side of the booth next door. Luckily no one was hurt, and the machine was never cranked up at that Show or anywhere else to my knowledge. Yet, the next year, Truswal redeemed themselves when they rolled out the Roll Splicer, which became one of the most successful inventions of all time (see my Truss Tales post, “The Little Machine That Could”).
A Draw Between Linear Saws: In 2002, two innovative linear saws faced off at BCMC in Columbus, OH. On one side of the aisle was Jim Urmson’s TCT and on the other was Alpine’s ALS, two saws that would change the trajectory of cutting truss parts, but from opposite angles. Urmson was the lone inventor who developed his TCT on the floor of the truss plant he ran, Mountain Truss. Jim was self-taught, mainly through his hobby of building and racing motorcycles. Jim built his TCT to cut small truss parts that couldn’t be cut on a component saw. After tinkering for more than a year and when Jim satisfied himself that he had a productive machine, he offered it to surrounding truss plants within driving distance of his location. When these plants began raving about the TCT’s effectiveness, Jim followed their advice to exhibit at BCMC.
Alpine caught wind of their plate customers’ successes with their TCTs and quickly realized its potential. Rather than develop a “me too” machine, they conceived a saw that would expand upon the TCT’s capabilities, cutting every conceivable truss part. They went into a crash development program with their best machinery experts, while leaning heavily on their automation suppliers, and produced an early prototype at the last possible minute before the show.
So, on the show floor Jim set up his well-proven saw opposite Alpine’s concept-of-a-saw. However, that’s when showmanship took center stage. For the very first time, and to great effect, Alpine actually cut wood during BCMC. Naturally, crowds were drawn to Alpine’s side of the aisle, marveling as Alpine’s Dave McAdoo cut near-perfect 36” scarf cuts, a feat no automated saw had ever achieved. As a result, Alpine booked immediate orders for their concept of a saw that had never run in a truss plant. Contrarily, Jim’s pioneering innovation attracted little attention, and he received no orders at BCMC.
For the next year, Alpine rushed to work out the bugs they discovered on the Show floor and, later, placed another prototype into a truss plant for testing. Ultimately, they settled on a marketable design. During this period Jim began ramping up his production and, mainly through word-of-mouth, was soon receiving all the TCT orders he could manage. Alpine, though late to the party, also scaled up their production, and before long, there were a hundred TCTs and ALSs operating in truss plants, and imitators were arriving too.
Late Bloomer: In 1988, Alpine brought the AutoSet table to BCMC in Nashville, TN, arguably the greatest truss jigging innovation yet conceived. While the AutoSet was highly praised by many Show attendees, including notables like Dick Rotto, CEO of Trussway, the consensus was that it was much too expensive. Jerry Koskovich followed suit ten years later with his JetSet, which was basically the same mechanism but utilizing two stacked screws in each channel. Then in 2004, Clyde Fredrickson moved two screws beneath the table, thereby protecting them, producing the Wizard to great success. But even such a winning mechanism, which is found in hundreds of plants today, took 15 years and many iterations before it was ready for primetime.
BCMC Lessons: After 40+ years of BCMC Shows, and many dozens of equipment displays, I believe that the best success comes from boldly showing new concepts. It’s all the better if they have met the test of time in a working component plant, but even the concepts that aren’t yet proven can make an impact. In any case, even if they are serviceable when demonstrated, the buyer needs to ensure that the seller has the means to refine and adapt the equipment over the long term.