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November 2020 #12256 Page #10
Sixty Years of Machines Part XII:
Best of Both
nce auto-jigging enabled 4-minute truss setups, some thought we could go no further. Not so, said our Canadian compadres. Their claim was hard to fathom, since our last Benchmark Test results seemed unbeatable. But it was worth investigation, even if the plant involved was 2500 miles away. So, we engaged our timekeeper, and headed to Vancouver, British Columbia.
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In late 2007, we traveled from the airport, through the big city, and arrived at Maple Ridge Truss in less than an hour. There we met the ebullient owner, Mark Monkman (now unfortunately deceased). Mark described the highly competitive, fast growing market he served, which included Seattle and the prosperous Puget Sound region. As we entered his small building and viewed the single-sided gantry line tight against the wall, we had our doubts. But the enthusiasm of Mark and his crew, and the genius of his spare setup, soon erased those doubts. We observed the cut parts of the 14 Benchmark trusses neatly arranged and in the proper sequence on carts in front of the truss table. This was the fourth test we had conducted (see Part XI: Auto-Jigging Innovations for test details), and on each iteration, an independent expert, Mr. Ed Buck, insured the uniformity of the test conditions, and kept accurate account of the times. As the clock started, the three-man crew sprang into action. One member triggered the autojigging while simultaneously bringing up an image of the first truss on a large screen opposite the setup. The two other crew members fed the truss parts into the laser-projected outline of the truss, even as the automated jigging was moving into position. We noticed that they often “stole” glances at the screen on the wall to determine where to place the truss members onto the table.
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