How Smooth are Your Splices? Glenn Traylor Quality trusses with smooth splices help ensure quality ceilings and floor finishes, but several factors may affect their execution. It’s generally understood by most truss builders that, while creating chord splices on any truss, it’s important to maintain a flush plane surface... Read More November 2019 Issue #11244 Page 38
Do Lasers Tell the Whole Story? Glenn Traylor Lasers can be exact, but their data can be misinterpreted. Having the equipment is only part of the equation—it also must be used and understood properly. For example, the connection in the photograph [See PDF or View in Full Issue] was misallocated. The plate should have been dropped... Read More October 2019 Issue #11243 Page 38
Is This Happening at Your Plant? Glenn Traylor At a recent TPI 3rd Party Audit, the In-Plant Inspector (IPI) and I were inspecting trusses coming off the line as is normal in an audit. A stacked truss caught my eye, mainly because the top plate did not line up with the plate on the opposite side of the truss. Upon careful examination, indeed... Read More September 2019 Issue #11242 Page 38
Does the Manufacturing Facility’s Environment Affect Quality? Glenn Traylor Can quality be determined by examining the environment of the facility manufacturing the product? It seems like the two are unrelated, but, after evaluating hundreds of facilities, quality seems to be proportional to the environment of the manufacturing. By this, I’m not saying that brand... Read More August 2019 Issue #11241 Page 34
Compression or Tension Web Configuration—Which is Better? Glenn Traylor On a recent Quality Assurance Audit at a large facility, we witnessed a floor truss builder carefully spacing out his floor truss webs in the allotted space available with precision and care. He was very meticulous. I asked him why he was doing that and he explained that his in-house inspector... Read More July 2019 Issue #11240 Page 32
Do Connectors on Both Sides of a Truss Ever Need to be Placed Exactly? Glenn Traylor Once in a while, I’m asked—Is there ever an occasion when connectors on both sides of the truss need exact placement? Well, the answer might surprise you. There are, in fact, several situations where the top face connector and the bottom face connector need to be exactly... Read More June 2019 Issue #11239 Page 38
How Do I Choose Which Plates for a Critical Plate Inspection? Glenn Traylor The requirement is: an inspector will, on average, inspect one critical plate for every inspection made during a week. That requirement is the baseline number for the quantity of critical inspections to perform—but because some trusses do not have critical plates, it’s necessary to... Read More May 2019 Issue #11238 Page 36
What Decisions Should Truss Builders Be Able to Make? Glenn Traylor In the November 2017 article, “So Who Exactly is Responsible for Lumber Quality?”, we discuss the abundance of quality building materials and the responsibility of the fabricator to evaluate their application in products. We should recall the ultimate decision maker in determining... Read More April 2019 Issue #11237 Page 34
How Should Defects Be Recorded When Inspecting a Critical Plate? Glenn Traylor A critical plate is a plate with a Joint Stress Index of 80% or greater. The ANSI/TPI 1–2014 Standard stipulates that critical plate inspections must be conducted when completing the three inspections per station/per shift/per week requirement. On average, the standard requires one... Read More March 2019 Issue #11236 Page 34
How Does a Fabricator Gain From a 3rd Party Audit? Glenn Traylor When a 3rd party inspector inspects a licensed plant, what exactly are the auditors looking for? And what can the fabricator get from the experience? What the inspection is NOT, and why that matters: The part 1 audit of the in-house paperwork is not a grade on neatness. It’s an... Read More February 2019 Issue #11235 Page 34