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Let’s face it, nobody loves sheathing walls panels. Sheathing is heavy, awkward to handle, slows down your production line, generates a lot of waste, and depending on how you cut it, it can create a lot of air-born dust that can make your working environment unpleasant. However, it does...

If you’ve been seeing our ads and reading my articles, including last month’s cover story, “Celebrating Growth at Element Equipment,” then you’ve gotten to know a little about Element Equipment. An original equipment manufacturer based in Grand Falls, NB, we are...

As I discussed in my May article, “Setting Our Sights on Innovation and Expansion at Panels Plus,” we’ve begun implementing a 2025–2027 strategic plan to raise the bar with a renewed focus on innovation, customer support, and improvements to our existing machines. These...

In 2013, we took over a plant that ran only component saws with live decks, and we struggled to keep them fed. We arranged full bunks of lumber close to the feed decks, but that necessitated moving several bunks when we had to replace an interior bunk. When we replaced those saws with two linear...

Jerome Powell’s late August speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium signals a potential shift in monetary policy that could significantly affect equipment financing for the building component industry. Powell’s remarks, which opened the door to a possible interest rate cut at the...

The name Combilift is known around the globe as a premier manufacturer of forklifts. The company was founded in 1998 when two passionate, experienced, and driven engineers, Robert Moffett and Martin McVicar, pooled their expertise and their shared vision to design the world’s first...

Over the past several weeks, recruiting activity in the truss and wall panel design space has picked up in a way that’s hard to ignore. More design professionals are registering on The JobLine and exploring opportunities. The increase is not overwhelming—skilled candidates are still...

In this business, timing is everything. Whether you’re running a component manufacturing company or looking for your next job opportunity, the question often comes down to this: are you a buyer or are you a seller? A few years ago, my son-in-law’s family—who’ve run a...

A Repetitive Member Increase (Cr) in truss design accounts for the load-sharing and composite action that occurs when multiple members, connected by load-distributing elements, act together as a system. This is an adjustment to allowable stresses of multiple members (like trusses, joists,...

With the Component Solutions® Truss Studio™ design software, you can draw areas on a layout which allow you to block out a specific area, preventing newly created trusses from passing through the designated obstruction area. These obstruction spaces (designated as cube shapes) can...