A
Th e
Component Manufacturing dverti$ dverti $ er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$$er
September 2026 #18326 Page #196
TheLast Word Transforming Construction Through Technology and Willpower Joe Kannapell, P.E.
I
’ve had an upper hand in writing about wood components, having been immersed in this industry my entire professional life. My first job was testing connector plates, my second was writing truss software, my third was engineering trusses, my fourth was working at truss plants, and my fifth was visiting truss plants, leading to my present “job” writing about them. I wrote sporadically until, nearly 11 years ago, Anna Stamm gave me the great privilege of writing once a month (which grew to twice a month) with her as my editor. Now, Anna and I have published my writings with her companion essays in Transforming Construction Through Technology and Willpower. The title, written by Anna, and the particularly apt word “transforming,” describes what I have been singularly blessed to be part of for 55 years. Not long after I learned in class how a truss worked, I saw truss connectors work in the lab. They had already begun transforming construction, which you can read about in Chapter 3, “The Development of the Truss Plate.” Interestingly, the connector I tested represented the belated acknowledgement that the truss industry was transforming from vertical presses to rollers, and from longtooth to short-tooth plates. On the day I finished testing at my college lab, Hydro-Air Engineering generously gave me the best slide rule made, the same type that Wernher von Braun used to get us to the moon. Then, they invited me to come to their office to work on software. So, ironically, with that classic slip-stick calculator in hand, I began programming its replacement, the machine that would transform truss engineering and much more, which you can read about in Chapter 8, “Fifty Years of Truss Design.” Soon a PhD took my place running the computer at Hydro-Air and I was asked to test a brand new product that was transforming the way floors were being built, the wood web floor truss, which you can read about in Chapter 7, “The Expansion of Floor Truss Technology.” Later, after our engineers designed one of our first large floor truss jobs, I visited the site near Marietta, GA. (The next day, however, I reported for Airborne School at Ft. Benning, GA, because my low draft number compelled me to join ROTC and earn a stint in the Army.) Returning after my last year of military service near the DMZ in Korea (fortunately by law, a company had to rehire a returning vet), I got to work directly for an industry founder, Walter Moehlenpah, and became involved in the machinery design that was transforming truss manufacturing in multiple ways, which you can read about in Chapter 5, “Roof Truss Equipment.” Continued next page
PHONE: 800-289-5627
Read/Subscribe online at www.componentadvertiser.com
FAX: 800-524-4982