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January 2023 #15282 Page #35
Are You Making Correct Substitutions and Placements When Upsizing Connectors? By Glenn Traylor
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ometimes it is necessary to deviate from the truss design drawing and use a different connector. This may happen when a specific size connector is not available or when the original connector has been removed. Per ANSI/TPI 1 Section 3.6.3, a metal connector can be substituted if the new connector is a larger size or equal size in both dimensions. If an installed connector has been removed, an evaluation of the used area needs to be conducted to determine if the plate size needs to be increased. For more information on this process, see my previous articles Is There a Reduction for Plating in a Previously Plated Area? (May 2016) and Are You Removing the Connectors Carefully When Replacing Them? (November 2022). When upsizing, it’s important to know that you cannot substitute a connector that is not of the same style or gauge. For example, replacing a 3×9 20-gauge plate with a 3×9 20-gauge high strength or 16-gauge high strength connector is not allowed unilaterally without specific engineering design. The connector might work, but it might not. The connector design dictates the number of teeth and the gauge impacts the load capacity by increasing the cross section, which is the area of the connector that transfers the load through the connector. The number of teeth is critical to the load transfer into the wood member. For example, consider the MiTek connector plates shown: Figure 1 is a standard 20-gauge connector, Figure 2 is a high strength 20-gauge connector, and Figure 3 is a high strength 16-gauge connector. Note that each one has a different tooth configuration, and that means each one will have a different number of teeth in a specific design. The images are of MiTek connectors, but this is true with all brands. Likewise, brands are not interchangeable without specific engineering. (For more on that topic, see my March 2021 article, Can a Fabricator Mix or Substitute Connector Plates From Different Manufacturers?.)
Figure 1: Standard 20-Gauge Connector, MiTek
Figure 2: High Strength 20-Gauge Connector, MiTek
Figure 3: High Strength 16-Gauge Connector, MiTek Continued next page
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