Our Article Library

When engineers Cal Jureit, Walter Moehlenpah, and Bill McAlpine witnessed the impressive launch of the IBM System/360 in July 1964, they surely suspected that computers could bring relief from the increasing burden of special engineering requests. Even though none could afford the System/360,...

A veteran designer recently laid out a hard truth about the component world that most general managers prefer to ignore. They pointed out that sales reps routinely make significantly more money in shorter periods of time, often with far less technical understanding of the product they just sold....

It’s that time again. The 2026 Florida Building Code 9th Edition will take effect on December 31, 2026, bringing with it updates that could affect how structural components are designed, analyzed, and documented throughout the state. For engineers, truss designers, and component...

The 2026 Florida Building Code adds prescriptive corrosion-protection requirements for fasteners, connectors, and metal plates near saltwater coastlines. Here is what changed, which options fit the requirements, and what to do next. At a Glance Effective December 31, 2026, new Section 1711...

Need to improve your truss plant production? AI may be the answer for you. Using information and knowledge you already have, you can work with AI to streamline your production workflow with a few basic prompts. One of the best things about using AI is that no prior training is required....

The shape of today’s truss plates was greatly influenced by their little-understood production processes. While these processes involve proprietary methods, their underlying technology was conceived decades ago in the tool and die shops and the punch press plants across America, and both...

This month’s article returns to a topic begun last month in “Inside Early Truss Design”: the movement of design technology from the drafting board to the computer. During this period, the only tools available were engineering theory and painstaking manual work. Specialized...

Thank you to everyone who visited our booth at this year’s Building Component Manufacturers Conference (BCMC) in Columbus, OH. Our booth transformed into a component manufacturer’s shop floor, showcasing how MiTek’s connected ecosystem of automation, software, engineering, and...

Imagine, if you will, two different component manufacturers (CMs) owned by the same parent company bidding against each other on the same project. Each location wants the order. As they compete on price, they drive down their own company’s revenue and gross margin. One location may win the...

We had a great week at BCMC. It was good to catch up with customers, meet manufacturers who were seeing Paragon for the first time, and get our team together on the show floor. We had a lot to show this year, and watching people react to what we’ve been working on made the months of...