Floor Truss Technology, Part II: Early Machinery Joe Kannapell It wasn’t enough for Jack Schmitt, President of Truswal, to introduce wood-web floor trusses. He also had to demonstrate how to build them, and that required a special machine. Schmitt turned to his trusted associate, Carl Virta, to come up with a process, and Carl knew who could help him.... Read More July 2023 Issue #15288 Page 10
All Things Wood: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the CM Frank Woeste AI isn’t new, just in the national news lately. Recently, I visited a former student who did his PhD research on AI applications about 35 years ago at Texas A&M University. During our conversations, he shifted to the AI subject in his current work and suggested I try using... Read More July 2023 Issue #15288 Page 66
Floor Truss Technology, Part I: Parallel Chord Trusses Joe Kannapell Floor trusses have been golden for the component industry for over half a century, and their origin is worth recounting and celebrating. Because of their flexibility and utility, wood trusses dominate apartment construction and have taken it up to 5 stories. Getting there, however, has required... Read More June 2023 Issue #15287 Page 10
Collect, Analyze, and Take Action with IntelliSheets By Alpine Antoniya Evans Alpine’s iCommand® IntelliSheets takes business management to the next level, saving time with tools created for designers and managers. Originally introduced with IntelliVIEW® 22.02 software release, IntelliSheets creates custom job lists, tracks progress, and shares live reports... Read More June 2023 Issue #15287 Page 96
The Development of the Truss Plate, Part X: Split Decision on Truss Plates Joe Kannapell Four distinctly different types of truss plates came onto the market in the 1950s, but only two made it into the 1960s: the short toothed and the long toothed, neither requiring nails. These two types continued to evolve over the next decade, although along distinctly different paths, and under... Read More May 2023 Issue #15286 Page 10
Should We Seal All Engineered Drawings? Glenn Traylor Recently, while conducting an ANSI/TPI audit, a splice caught my eye. When I investigated further, I realized that the bottom chord of the truss I was investigating had a very short, 2” chord segment. I immediately assumed the truss builders had cut a short block to make up for a miss-cut... Read More May 2023 Issue #15286 Page 37
Wall Fabrication Solutions from Vekta Rob Bellian Skills shortages, increased costs, margin pressures, and continued demand for new builds across the housing market have in recent years accelerated the focus on automating the prefabrication of lumber wall frames, roof trusses, and lumber floors. Today, the prefabrication of lumber wall frames... Read More May 2023 Issue #15286 Page 50
Correctly Defining Truss Members MiTek Staff When designing trusses for special loads or special conditions, it is important to define the individual truss members correctly. Without proper member definitions, trusses could be inadvertently under-designed and/or have incorrect analog. The most common member types are webs and chords. Top... Read More May 2023 Issue #15286 Page 92
The Development of the Truss Plate, Part IX: The Case of the Century Joe Kannapell Among our industry’s unsung heroes, Walter Moehlenpah takes a close second place behind Cal Jureit. Both built pivotal, pioneering businesses, Jureit through his truss plate and Moehlenpah through his truss machine. Yet Jureit was bound to have the upper hand, as he was the truss... Read More April 2023 Issue #15285 Page 10
Backwards Compatibility: Unlocking the Full Potential of Your Investment Rob Bellian Backwards compatibility is a feature that allows newer versions of software or hardware to successfully work with older versions. This point came to mind during my recent visit to one of our long-time Vekta customers. This plant in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne, Australia has been operating... Read More April 2023 Issue #15285 Page 54