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May 2024 #16298 Page #10
Wall Panel Technology, Part II: Panel Equipment Proliferates
T
he demand for wall panel equipment after World War II was unprecedented, even to this day. Industrialization was in the air, and factory-built wall panels became the gateway, even before roof trusses. Most of the action was in the affordable housing sector, driven by the mobile home, modular, and especially the prepackaged house manufacturers. And late in the game, by the 1970s, more truss plants joined the fray, as they understood the returns that could be earned by investing in specialized equipment.
By Joe Kannapell
The respondents came from all over the map, but one of the earliest was Homasote Company, a wall sheathing provider. In 1951, they introduced an integrated wall panel line, which had been inspired by their own experience during the War building wall panels for government housing. In fact, the government had commandeered all of the production of Homasote sheathing during the War, because it was made from recycled paper products so its production was not curtailed by rationing restrictions. To promote this advantage, Homasote developed a unique 2x2 wall and roof panel, which was sheathed on both faces with their sheathing boards. These lightweight panels were incorporated in the construction of 6000 housing units.1 Out of this experience came a purpose-built panel line.
This annotated graphic is but one of 45 elaborate drawings of Homasote’s patented panel system. Although the complexity of their approach is daunting, key elements would become essential parts of later systems. Homasote was a decade ahead of other serious entrants, who took a much more measured approach. And one of those stands out from the rest. Jim Merrick entered the fray when a local mobile home manufacturer asked him to build a machine for fastening window frames together. This led Merrick to apply the technology used in air brakes to the task of driving nails, even before handheld pneumatic tools had been commercialized. Merrick’s rapid nailing tool gave him a leg up on other equipment suppliers, and his hands-on, conservative business approach set him on a steady, incremental approach to equipment development. In the late 1960s, he introduced a steady series of machines that automated the most basic wall 1
Brian Potter, Construction Physics, WW2 Era Mass-Produced Housing (Part 1).
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