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Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$$er
November 2024 #16304 Page #10
Wall Panel Technology, Part VIII: Panel Automation From American Suppliers By Joe Kannapell
late markers, single tool bridges, and automated saws were just a few of the enhancements that filtered into wall panel shops at the Millennium. Their adoption was quickened by the consolidation of component manufacturers (CMs) and by the increasing pressure on all CMs by busy builders. Builders Supply and Lumber (which would become Builders FirstSource in 2008) was just one of the several multi-plant owners that tested new equipment in one plant and, if it performed successfully, would purchase additional units for their other plants. Captive component producer NVR followed suit. Since these two entities were the largest wall panel suppliers in the country, their purchases quickened the buying decisions of independent CMs and created a fertile environment for other innovations. And, as had occurred with truss equipment, the first panel process to be automated was cutting.
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Cutting Enhancements – The very first step in legacy panel production lines has been the cutting of top and bottom wall plates to length. Tommy Wood had skillfully allied his company with the Tiger Stop product, which automatically moves a lumber stop to a specific measurement. Others have used the Hain Measuring System in which a pointer is manually moved along a scale to the inch measurement desired, and then boards are bumped against the appropriate lumber stop corresponding to the number of whole foot desired. Both of these methods yielded accurate cut lengths, and they set the stage for downloading of data. One of the first panel saws to do so was the PF90, invented by George Blaine in 1993 to cut defects from hardwood boards and adapted by Alpine to the component industry. Blaine envisioned that a sawyer would scan the cutting list on a display screen and then examine the board in front of him to determine a cut length that could be accommodated on defect-free portions of that board. Plate Marking – In the late 1990s, the PF90 was one of the first sawing systems that was outfitted with an ink jet printer to mark top and bottom plates for stud and junction locations. Because these ink marks were often hard to read, Virtek adapted a laser to the task, which made the markings almost permanent. As printing technology improved, a new batch of plate markers was launched including the Hornet, EasyFrame, and DeWall.
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