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Component Manufacturing dverti$ dverti $ er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
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May 2023 #15286 Page #10
The Development of the Truss Plate, Part X: Split Decision on Truss Plates By Joe Kannapell
our 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.
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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 muchimproved plate that would foreshadow today’s plate designs.
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