I shouldn’t admit I wasn’t excited by the Artemis II mission, even though the TV was telling me I should be. I was unable to escape the coverage though, and I ended up with a few takeaways I hadn’t expected. Bridging Entertainment and Inspiration Even though I...

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,...

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...

Stepping into the CEO role at Paragon comes at an interesting moment, both for our company and for the building components industry as a whole. Paragon recently turned ten years old. In software, especially software aimed at a domain as technically demanding as structural components, most of...

Will trusses will be part of new American homes in the future? That question has been the reason I keep a close eye on the home built for NAHB’s International Builders Show. Since 1984, this off-site exhibit, “The New American Home” (TNAH), has presented the latest innovations...

Innovation in the structural building components industry does not always come from sweeping, disruptive change. Often, it begins with practical ideas, incremental improvements, and solutions born directly from jobsite challenges. The SBCA Innovation Grant is designed to bring those ideas...

Jerry Koskovich, inventor of the first robotically controlled truss equipment, passed away March 17, 2026. Jerry was a singularly gifted entrepreneur who started from scratch in the truss industry as a TPI QC inspector in Minnesota in 1973. While doing his inspections on the shop floor in many...

Wood was not held in high regard in the truss drafting department where I began working. Our fabricator customers often wanted their trusses designed with “old lumber,” meaning the obsolete size of 1-5/8” x 3-5/8”, even though the 1.5” x 3.5” size had been in...

Few, if any, pieces of wood will pass the scrutiny of an 8’ level, and the superintendent of Bill Milburn’s homes in Texas wielded his level like a weapon. When I walked those houses, I needed a level, plumb line, string line, and more. Today, I have some of the same capabilities in...

You could say that Carol Sanford flipped the script on machinery, like he had in so many circumstances throughout his career. In the 1950s, when he couldn’t sell his modular homes in Ohio, he shipped them to Florida. When he couldn’t sell them there, he turned to selling site-built...