The Development of the Truss Plate, Part V: Frenetic First Get-Together

Issue #14281 - December 2022 | Page #10

By Joe Kannapell

Twelve competitors faced one another for the first time—but only because they had to. Each of their fledgling plate businesses was threatened by a July 31 deadline from the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and they had less than three weeks to put together a design criterion for plated trusses. Half of them came from across the country to reach Miami, Florida for this meeting, while the other half came from nearby. But they represented what was said to include about 50 entities building plated trusses. All except one of the attendees had been active in the business for more than three years, and all were independent small businessmen. No matter how they got there, they must have seen the potential of this new product—but they had their work cut out for them on this hot summer day. The instigators of this July 5, 1960 meeting were the four earliest South Florida truss plate manufacturers: H-Brace, Sanford, Gang-Nail, and Ronel. [For all images, See PDF or View in Full Issue.]

Each of these pioneering companies had patented a unique truss connector and gained success marketing it for several years. The first was Charles McAdam, whose wrap-around connector was brought by Carol Sanford to Cal Jureit’s lab for testing, although it did not gain much traction. While Sanford left to develop the Gri-P-Plate, McAdam introduced a nail-on plate that could be affixed from one side, eliminating flipping of the truss. This required the use of a specially notched nail that bent when driven into a soft sheet metal back plate, creating a clinching effect, which dramatically increased the strength of the connection. The H-Brace was widely used, as attested by Karl The Losen, current owner of Ridgway Roof Truss in Gainesville, FL, and Vivian Hollinshed, the late owner of Comtech, Inc. in Fayetteville, NC.

The next two attendees were Bill McAlpine, who was Carol Sanford’s engineer at that time, and Cal Jureit of Gang-Nail (see The Development of the Truss Plate, Part II: Cal Jureit’s Invention and Part III: The Ingenuity of Carol Sanford and Cal Jureit for further background).

The fourth of these early collaborators was Ronel Corp., whose Barb Grip plate was the first short tooth plate that needed no supplementary nails. Its “plug” type design had nearly equal design properties in all directions and was later adopted by Clary. Ronel was represented at the meeting by the late Yilmaz “Jerry” Akdoruk, the first of many professional engineers of Turkish descent who have enriched our industry. Jerry was widely known for developing and selling the first self-study truss design course.

These four companies had convened prior to the July 1960 meeting to prepare a design criterion, based on the work of Cal Jureit in Dade County and organized along the lines of the long-established Steel Joist Institute (SJI) Code. Because steel joists were prefabricated and delivered to jobsites like wood trusses, their Code provided a good model. With these references, a draft code was prepared and mailed to meeting invitees.

The remaining attendees included five more from Southeast Florida and four others from Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Colorado. All of their companies had been formed in the mid-1950s specifically for the purpose of stamping truss plates.

The diversity of this group likely resembled startup ventures in other new industries. Some were just “kicking the tires” and would not go on to establish a plate business. Others had started stamping plates but would depart the industry after a short period. And just a few would go on to achieve lasting success. But on this day, they were united in their effort to establish a new industry and to gain recognition of the building authorities.