Building intricate floor truss details may bedevil a robot, but they provide the inherent advantage of floor trusses over I-joists. There are also things that floor trusses can do that I-joists cannot. And they facilitate the most efficient use of materials. Visiting an I-joist cut-off yard...

Wood Tech Systems (WTS) has traveled thousands of miles and spent several years researching robotics while trying to find the best fit for the North American wood component industry. There have been many challenges in our industry when it comes to integrating robotics, but the biggest one in my...

The future of full-scale structures testing and product development is here – and it is BIG. Our Tyrell Gilb Research Laboratory built a brand-new Million Pound Rig to help in the testing of our new Yield-Link® brace connection (YLBC), along with our many other products. Hear from Mike...

New inventions may fade away, but most provide valuable lessons, like the concrete truss machine. Not many of these were built, but they seemed to Cal Jureit to be the logical match for his new truss plate, and they set the course for all his future machines. Jureit had to have been...

Our contemporary floor machines were ready for the resurgence of demand that has followed the pandemic. These new models had many fascinating features, accumulated from the multiple iterations before them. They were more durable, they lessened labor, and they built a quality truss, embedding all...

If you were able to attend this fall’s Building Component Manufacturers Conference (BCMC) in Indianapolis, then you may have gotten your first look at the latest game changer in wall panel manufacturing—Triad’s Ai Sub-Component Nailer. [For photos, See PDF or View in Full...

Component manufacturers learned one very painful floor truss lesson in the 1970s that needed to be remedied in the 1980s – nightmare repairs can result from plates not being fully embedded. That predicament usually resulted from insufficient tonnage to fully press the larger plates found...

This year’s Building Component Manufacturers Conference and Framers Summit (BCMC | FS) in Indianapolis will be remembered as one for the record books. Attendance was great and you would be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t have a good time. My key takeaway from this show is the...

Vekta Automation is in the business of just that – automating timber truss and frame plants. From the Razer saws to an advanced product offering, Vekta is introducing automation machinery for every stage of the truss and frame manufacturing process. We have automation that is reducing the...

A robot visited the BCMC Show floor again this year, and, for the first time, really showed its stuff, picking truss plates like there was no tomorrow. And its dynamic demo couldn’t be missed, as House of Design (HoD) positioned their Nail Plate Picking Cell right at the exhibit’s...