Wall Panel Technology, Part II: Panel Equipment Proliferates Joe Kannapell The demand for wall panel equipment after World War II was unprecedented, even to this day. Industrialization was in the air, and factory-built wall panels became the gateway, even before roof trusses. Most of the action was in the affordable housing sector, driven by the mobile home, modular,... Read More May 2024 Issue #16298 Page 10
How the Spida Wall Panel Line Capitalizes on Efficiency Cullen Ellis As all prefabricated wall panel manufacturers know, you are always trying to predict the amount of wall panels required for your business daily. You need to know what their true cost is and when they will be delivered to your customer, and all of this needs to happen efficiently and on time.... Read More May 2024 Issue #16298 Page 17
Innovating from the Ground Up: Welcome to the Future! Caleb Knudson At Simpson Strong-Tie, Risk-Taking Innovation is central to our mission of helping people design and build safer, stronger structures. We’ve devoted a tremendous amount of effort and resources to thoughtfully cultivating a culture of innovation. And as Engineers, we’ve been armed... Read More May 2024 Issue #16298 Page 114
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
The Last Word: How Gene Frogale Continues to Lead Us into the Future Joe Kannapell Before SBCA “signed off” on 2022–2023 President Gene Frogale’s stellar leadership, he was already developing a new product to benefit component plants. Now, as he is working on an innovative insulated wall stud, the only evidence of his prior accomplishment, a large... Read More April 2024 Issue #16297 Page 146
Wall Panel Technology Prequel: Birth of the Component Industry Joe Kannapell Prefabricated wall panels made their first big impact under a government program in World War II. In 1942, the federal government began contracting with 50 existing prefab housing plants to deliver dwellings for 42,000 wartime workers. Since this work was highly repetitive and required rapid... Read More March 2024 Issue #16296 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
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
Implementing Continuous Improvements at Panels Plus Tim Grahn It’s hard to believe that it is already the New Year, but we had another successful year at Panels Plus in 2023. Despite some ups and downs in the housing market and all the buzz around high interest rates, we had our busiest year on record. The incredible value that our wall panel and... Read More January 2024 Issue #16294 Page 51