Do Your Floor Truss Chord Splices Meet Your Design Requirements? Glenn Traylor It seems like a simple thing—connect lumber together with connectors creating a top or bottom chord for your floor trusses that exceed your lumber length inventory. It’s one of the simplest applications of metal connector plates. But, while the task seems obvious, there are several... Read More December 2023 Issue #15293 Page 31
One Size Can Fit All Edmond Lim, P.Eng. 2023 was quite a year for Feeding the Beast of all sizes. That is a testament to the simplicity, utility, and robustness of our Process Organization Technology. The RetroC as a standalone auto-feeding component saw can anchor truss plants of all sizes from a single truss jig to over 10 jigs. A... Read More December 2023 Issue #15293 Page 38
Species Substitution: Lean into the Full Flexibility of MSR Lumber MSR Lumber Producers Council MSR Lumber has a long history of being the right choice for component manufacturers. This reliable and consistent lumber grading system revolutionized the construction industry when it was introduced to the market in the 1960s, and it continues to be a mainstay for truss producers decades... Read More December 2023 Issue #15293 Page 74
Important Quality Checks During Each Stage of Truss Manufacturing Alpine Team Quality control starts before the first piece of lumber is set into motion. Every employee at each phase of component design and manufacturing plays a critical role to help avoid costly repairs, potential frustration, and additional workload. As an engineer that has seen many repairs, here are a... Read More December 2023 Issue #15293 Page 92
ROI: Turn Your Largest COST (Lumber) into a Profit Driver Valerie Hansen Lumber is mission-critical to every component manufacturer (CM). On average, it represents two-thirds of your cost-of-goods (CoG), roughly half of the value of your product (Revenue – Pretax Profit). So, what are the market dynamics that surround the purchase of lumber? And how/why can CMs... Read More November 2023 Issue #15292 Page 72
Information Needed to Provide Efficient Truss Design Repairs MiTek Staff Metal plate connected roof and floor trusses are used widely in residential single family, multi- family, commercial, and agricultural construction. They provide design flexibility, span greater distances than traditional “stick framing,” and allow faster erection of the roof system... Read More November 2023 Issue #15292 Page 97
How Do I Maintain Lumber Grade Qualifications When I Cut Off the Grade Stamp? Glenn Traylor The past twenty years have brought many changes to the Metal Plate Connected Wood Truss Industry. These changes require manufacturing to change too, as the entire process continues to evolve and mature. Here is one situation where changes in manufacturing are necessary. Not too long ago,... Read More October 2023 Issue #15291 Page 35
Wood Member-To-Wood Member Gaps MiTek Staff MiTek engineers are often asked what maximum gaps are allowed for wood member-to-wood member in metal-plate-connected wood trusses. Gaps between wood members are addressed in Chapter 3 Quality Criteria for the Manufacture of Metal-Plate-Connected Wood Trusses of the ANSI/TPI 1-2014 (National... Read More October 2023 Issue #15291 Page 113
The Last Word: Can Crooked Lumber Defeat Robotics? Joe Kannapell, PE 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... Read More October 2023 Issue #15291 Page 134
“Person Loading” of Chords Without Structural Wood Sheathing Frank Woeste The National Design Standard for Metal Plate Connected Wood Truss Construction, ANSI/TPI 1-2022 has been updated to require a design load check that accounts for a Person Loading of a roof truss chord without structural wood sheathing. As discussed in the ANSI/TPI 1 Commentary, this loading... Read More September 2023 Issue #15290 Page 94