The Development of the Truss Plate, Part III: The Ingenuity of Carol Sanford and Cal Jureit

Issue #14279 - October 2022 | Page #10

By Joe Kannapell

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 simple to mass produce. Though his plate required extensive hand nailing, it was the best wood connector available at the time and an instant hit. By July 1958, Sanford was operating a huge stamping plant and had developed extensive engineering manuals, declaring on their covers that his company was “The World Leader in Roof Truss Connectors.” This claim was undoubtedly true, as Sanford had no real competition until Jureit entered the scene. [For all images, See PDF or View in Full Issue.]

Cal Jureit engineered his own business startup with thoughtful aplomb. Before going to market with a product that he knew was better than Sanford’s, he spent a year of R&D perfecting it, drawing from his years running a testing lab. This involved “one-off” fabrication of multiple plate configurations and running dozens of tests. With the data collected, Jureit was able to determine optimal tooth size and arrangement, and the necessity of increasing the plate thickness from 16 gauge to 14 gauge. Finally, with design in hand, he was unable to find an existing stamping facility capable of producing it, as Miami lacked heavy industry. So, he invested further time and effort recruiting manufacturing talent and outfitting a suitable building. And by 1958, Jureit was ready to stake his claim in the truss plate market.

Perhaps Sanford felt the competition was growing and realized he needed to distinguish his plate from Jureit’s, as these 1958 product listings from American Builder Magazine seem to imply. Sanford indicates “Semi-Nailed” in the headline without any mention of the extensive hand-nailing effort required. He seems to hang his hat on the “1,000 lbs. (jigging) pressure” and “each joint placed under 50 tons of pressure” without acknowledging that the truss must be flipped, back-plated, and nailed before being “moved to a roller table.”

Contrarily, Jureit’s promotions immediately seized on his trump card, headlining that the “Gang-Nail plate eliminates hand nailing altogether.” Then, he compounded that advantage by stating that both top and bottom plates are applied while the truss is in the jig.

While both of these listings gloss over the machinery needed to apply their products, this determination was underway. Sanford alluded to a roller table and a vertical press with 50 tons of pressure at each joint, while Jureit referenced a moveable table that rolls through a vertical beam-type press that can simultaneously press two or more truss joints. Jureit was the first to submit a patent application for a vertical press. Two years later, in 1962, Sanford patented a system with a vertical press with finish roller.

Another factor that was not apparent from the early ads, but would eventually be a game changer, was the dramatic difference in the steel makeup of their plates: Sanford’s 20 gauge plate was half the weight and half the cost of Jureit’s 14 gauge plate.