Today, linear saw technology provides unmatched efficiency with profound differences to productivity, service, and reliability. An automated linear saw can also reduce the lumber cut waste by batching and combining different cuts of various pieces known as lumber optimization. So what is the one...

I once had the sales representative for a software company looking to secure our business tell me that, in his view, being a truss designer (or panel designer) was like taking a never-ending math test in which any score less than 100% was failure. He was certainly of the “old school”...

Carol Sanford’s invention didn’t equal Cal Jureit’s, but he made up for it with his head start and his aggressive marketing. Sanford had filed for his patent in March 1954, two years ahead of Jureit’s September 1956 filing, and had a plate design that was relatively...

Ah, ‘tis the season. Sure, you traditionally hear that expression around wintertime, but we’re talking about a different season altogether: BCMC Season! Which means Shopping Season! It’s that season when CMs start to study automation and equipment that gains automation....

Civil engineer Cal Jureit had moved on from wood structures to concrete foundations, but not completely. While he was engaged with the problem of building houses on Miami’s marshes near the Everglades, he had left the problem of wood connections unresolved. Perhaps his ongoing work on Dade...

I sometimes wonder if I am at risk of becoming the truss designer version of the grouchy old man that sits on the front porch yelling at the neighborhood kids to “get off my lawn.” When I hear some newer designer criticize the limitations of today’s truss layout and design...

A nearly perfect confluence of circumstances combined to create the truss plate in South Florida. The wartime home-building hiatus, the post-war baby boom, and the northward (from Cuba) and southward (snowbird) migration to Florida all combined to skyrocket the demand for new housing. But what...

When $20 Billion behemoth Builders First Source (BFS) launched a robotic truss line in April, CMs were surprised that they would select House of Design (HoD)’s first truss machine, and the industry’s first robotic floor truss line. Remarkably, after just over 3 months, they’ve...

For most of history, wood structures had been constrained by their connections. Nailed or bolted joints could only carry about half of what the wood could. As a result, our most abundant natural resource went mainly into homebuilding, where spans were short and stresses were low. That began to...

With component lead times being extremely long in our industry today, every manufacturer is scrambling to increase capacity. Some need more space, some need additional equipment, some simply need a labor force that is willing to work all day every day. Mostly, these needs can be met with capital...