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Component Manufacturing dverti$ dverti $ er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$$er
September 2021 #13266 Page #47
Is Your Equipment Up to the Challenge?
By Glenn Traylor
L
et’s face some facts. Eventually your truss building equipment needs repair or replacement. Exactly when do you pull the trigger? When do you take the big jump? In a perfect world with endless resources, it’s an easy calculation—replace or repair the equipment when there is a reasonable return on investment (ROI). But, should the decision just depend on your resources? Should that be the governing factor? Well, some decisions need to be made when the lack of a decision can create extremely risky situations. The calculations behind repair/replace decisions should not be limited to dollars—they need to consider hazards too. Certain risks should always be avoided and must be added to the evaluation. Here is an example of that situation. At the facility where this truss is manufactured, the machinery is incapable of dealing with the situation shown in the photo. This is an end detail of an intermediate bearing floor truss. Because of the size and amount of force necessary to seat the connectors, the machine cannot push the plate in to an acceptable embedment to meet ANSI/TPI 1 requirements. A 3/32” gap is the maximum allowed gap in this situation. Basically, it’s the thickness of a credit card. The serious concern is, more than likely, there are many trusses that have been built, sold, delivered, installed, and are now in service— trusses that could eventually fail because of this manufacturing defect. What’s more, this defect may not be detected until repairs or remedies will be extremely expensive for the building, fabricator, or homeowner. What is the cost of this scenario? PHONE: 800-289-5627
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