Frame and truss machinery has always competed on mechanical engineering design, and it still does. But, when you ask a plant manager where the day-to-day pain and gains in their plant actually come from, increasingly the answer is software. Throughput, uptime, operator experience — these...

Affectionately dubbed 3.0, the latest generation of Enventek’s NEXPLATE injects Formula 1-style velocity to truss build tables. Building on the foundation of version 2.0 — which debuted last year at the Building Component Manufacturers Conference (BCMC) in Omaha — NEXPLATE 3.0...

How fast should a wall panel line be? A lot faster than it takes to frame on site. Sure, if the framing and sheathing speed is the same as on site there are still savings in reducing overall build time and the accompanying finance and insurance costs. But, framing on site doesn’t require...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is everywhere we look lately. From health care to education to manufacturing operations, AI leaders claim their applications will improve productivity and streamline business processes in every way imaginable. Some say it will replace jobs, while others...

Two highly consequential labor-saving innovations were hatched at the 1993 National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Show at the Astrodome complex in Houston, Texas. Outside the Astrodome, two identical model homes were being framed side-by-side, proving the labor savings of components....

It’s about time that a serious contender challenges the dominance of the roller gantry. Its life has been extended with lasers and auto-puck systems, but no upgrade so far has taken the hammer out of the hands of assemblers, its greatest drawback. The only alternative, the vertical press,...

Walk into most structural component manufacturing facilities across North America and you’ll see a familiar contrast: highly sophisticated design software upstream, increasingly automated assembly downstream — and somewhere in the middle, cutting processes that still rely heavily on...

Six decades of partnership, practical innovation, and growth: That is the legacy Alpine® celebrates as it marks its 60th anniversary. Turning the big 6-0 is something that hits some people hard, while others consider themselves lucky to reach that milestone. But a business in a competitive...

In hockey, “Dump and Chase” is highly effective depending on how deep the puck is dumped into the opposing team’s defensive zone, and how hard the dumping team will chase and fight to get back possession of the puck. The strategy is to physically punish the defending team and...

Last month, in “Say Hello to AMT Robotics,” I introduced our Datum Squaring Table. This month, I’d like to focus on our HyperLeap Sheathing Bridge. You’ll find that our modular approach allows you to install the machine that best suits your current needs while giving...