A
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Component Manufacturing dverti$er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$er
January 2020 #12246 Page #10
Sixty Years of Machines: Part II: A Pressing Issue
Joe Kannapell - P.E. Senior VP, MiTek USA www.mitek-us.com
W
hy reflect on the oft-derided C-Clamp as it fades into truss industry oblivion? Because it holds the world record for truss production, unmatched yet, even by robots. And although it debuted half a century ago, its design has never been equaled. And remarkably, this deceptively simple machine launched a billion dollar enterprise.
Wally Randall (late father of Alpine’s Brian Randall) showed me the utility of the C-Clamp nearly 50 years ago. I met him in a small shed behind a St. Louis lumberyard, operating a Mark 6 press over a set of pedestals similar to that shown. He grasped its hand grips, and strode smoothly around the perimeter of a truss, barely slowing to plate each joint. His entire jig setup and pre-cut parts occupied less than half the space than would have been taken up by a truss table. And the pedestals could be moved out of the way to make room for building materials when the truss business was slow. This small footprint could be accommodated inside existing lumber yard structures, minimizing startup costs as hundreds entered the business beginning in the 1950s. And the whole system cost less than a typical delivery truck. With the advent of the improved Mark 8 Mono-Press (shown at the top of this article) in the late 1960s, and the accompanying economic boom, sales accelerated. I watched in amazement as we recorded $2 Million of sales of Mono-Presses at the INBEX show in 1972 (the Industrialized Building Exposition was a precursor to BCMC held at the Louisville Fairgrounds). This is equivalent to $12 Million in sales today. Lenny Sylk, SBCA Hall of Famer, took the Mark 8 Mono-Press to a new level of productivity in the late 1970s. Through extensive time studies, he created a highly competitive system that he deployed across the country. When he attempted to copy the Mono-Press, he discovered the ingenuity of the invention. Designed by an aircraft engineer, the Mark 8 incorporates high strength steel and intricately welded construction. The platens are uniquely oriented, so that they remain parallel, even under 50,000 lbs. of pressure, which ensures proper plate embedment. These features enabled a U.S. Patent to be issued, which largely protected the Mark 8’s market.
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