The true story of how Alpine revolutionized saws In early 2000, sales of truss equipment began to taper off. By the end of the year, the Equipment Division had reduced its employment by more than half and had shrunk its occupied floor space by 40%. The most dramatic reduction took place in...

Over the last decade — in outlets reaching from construction industry journals to the Boston Globe and the Economist; from CNN and Fast Company to Popular Mechanics; to Nautilus and TED talks — we’ve been hearing increasingly about mass timber and related phenomena:...

In the last few years, Simpson Strong-Tie has heard from a number of structural engineers expressing frustration with the lack of performance data for shallowly embedded, post-installed anchors (shallow anchors). Engineers of Record (EOR) have identified a common application for shallow anchors...

It’s a simple fact—successful projects depend on good communication. What’s not so simple—there’s a tremendous volume of information that must be shared between multiple stakeholders in any construction project. Last month’s article, The 3D Model Everyone Can...

How do you get a new component manufacturing business up and running at a competitive speed as efficiently and quickly as possible, on the eve of a global pandemic, when you’re short on start-up capital? The two-part answer is simple: Alpine® and STITCHER®. United Southwest...

Information is the key to almost everything. In our lives and in our jobs, we rely on obtaining pertinent and accurate details so that we can make informed decisions. In our industry, we are heavily reliant on information and details from each customer, whether they are a homeowner, a building...

I-joists dominate the joist market due to their high material efficiency and low manufacturing cost. However, this product has disadvantages, including difficulty in HVAC installations and the possibility of bottom chord support only. Therefore, the market would pay a considerable premium for a...

Optimization is a crucial part of success and profitability in our industry. It is something that every component manufacturer works at daily in some form or another. At the same time, however, the word has so very many different interpretations that few have exactly the same approach. In this...

In our January 2021 issue, Frank Woeste and Don Bender wrote, “Hybrid Lumber" Grade Stamps Require Special Attention. This article provided information on how to recognize hybrid grade marks and how to calculate hybrid lumber values for truss design. Included was this caution: A...

With the economy in the United States on the rebound, truss designers are in unusually high demand. Unlike other professionals in the building industry, a truss designer is not required (at present) to have any formal education or any type of college degree. Fact is, there is presently nowhere...