The Development of the Truss Plate, Part X: Split Decision on Truss Plates

Issue #15286 - May 2023 | Page #10

By Joe Kannapell

Four distinctly different types of truss plates came onto the market in the 1950s, but only two made it into the 1960s: the short toothed and the long toothed, neither requiring nails. These two types continued to evolve over the next decade, although along distinctly different paths, and under increasingly competitive conditions. [For all images, See PDF or View in Full Issue.]

Carol Sanford was the first to re-evaluate his plate. Although this would involve extensive manual work redoing his dozens of engineering manuals, he surely realized that he had to develop a “no-nails” plate. His nearby competitor, Cal Jureit, brought this to light in a bold headline, “…eliminates hand-nailing altogether,” which he ran directly beneath Sanford’s ad in the 1958 American Builder Magazine. But Sanford knew how to remedy his shortcomings. He would repeat the extensive testing regimen that got him into the business. However, he was now the head of a thriving nationwide enterprise, so he needed help to manage this effort. Fortunately, Sanford had the foresight to hire a promising young civil engineer, Bill McAlpine, who undoubtedly contributed to the development of new plates and the associated engineering. Sanford and McAlpine collaborated on two new plate designs, both similar to the Ronel Barb-Grip but with many more clusters of teeth. These plates still lacked competitive gripping values, however, so the development work continued. In 1965, Sanford debuted the first plate with an innovative “two teeth per slot” design, and it was this much-improved plate that would foreshadow today’s plate designs.

Ronel must have realized that they were trailing Sanford, and they were also motivated by the loss of patent protection on their Barb-Grip plate (just as the Gang-Nail plate had lost its cases in Federal Court and upon appeal). Fortunately, like Sanford, Ronel brought on an enterprising young engineer, Mehmet Ilter, who went to work developing and testing a new plate design. After undergoing an arduous process, Ilter developed a plate with even greater grip strength than Sanford’s latest design. (After an illustrious engineering career, unfortunately Ilter passed away on March 26, 2023.)

Cal Jureit also realized that his 14-gauge plate was disadvantaged by the 16-gauge Atkins and Hydro-Air plates that he had failed to stop in court. And he no doubt was aware of the 20-gauge Sanford and Ronel plates that incorporated less than half the weight of steel. These concerns were compounded by Jureit’s fervent belief in the superiority of the long-tooth plate and vertical pressing, and he had ample justification for his beliefs.

The early roller plates had several drawbacks, especially when examined under thorough engineering rigor. The short teeth of the plug type plates often flared out nearly parallel to the surface of the lumber, severely decreasing their effectiveness. Shorter teeth were also more vulnerable to variances in steel hardness and manufacturing tolerances, especially when embedded with rollers with less than 16” in diameter. And finally, in head-to-head testing, the press-applied plate was about 10% stronger than the roller-applied plate.

Jureit’s goal was “to provide improved…connectors…which are less expensive,” but he did not address his 20-gauge competitors. Instead, he produced an 18-gauge plate, with a tooth length that was reduced from 13/16” to 9/16”. Of course, this plate was not rollable, and that extended tooth length would soon become a considerable constraint.

The period 1966–72 brought hundreds of new CMs into the business, as housing starts tripled. What attracted them to the truss business probably had nothing to do with the type of plate that they were being offered. Those were the days before mass communication, when inquiries to plate companies were answered with personal selling. And after new CMs had invested in a particular supplier, they first had to learn the complexities of the business before they could consider changing suppliers. However, economics eventually came to the forefront, especially as CMs had more choices of truss machinery.

For more on this story, see page 124, “The Last Word: Truss Machinery Follows the Plates”