ROBOTIC APPLICATIONS FOR WOOD ROOF TRUSS FIXTURING

WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF SMALL COMPUTERS TO THE WOOD ROOF TRUSS INDUSTRY, THE VARIETY OF TRUSS CONFIGURATIONS UTILIZEDON A TYPICAL RESIDENCE WENT FROM ONE OR TWO 10 YEARS AGO TO AN AVERAGE OF FIVE OR MORE AT PRESENT. STATISTICS SHOW THAT CONVENTIONAL METHODS OF FIXTURING TRUSS JIGGING SYSTEMS IN ORDER TO ASSEMBLE THE SAWN COMPONENTS INTO A COMPLETED WOOD TRUSS ACCOUNTS FOR 41% OF THE TOTAL LABOR TO PRODUCE THE AVERAGE TRUSS JOB. A RECENT SURVEY SHOWS THAT AN AVERAGE OF 5 TO 10 TRUSSES ARE PRODUCED ON EACH JIG SETUP, WITH EVEN LOWER NUMBERS BECOMING MORE FREQUENT. CONVERSELY, 20 TRUSSES PER SETUP IS CONSIDERED A "VERY GOOD RUN". PRELIMINARY STUDIES INDICATE THAT A ROBOTIC JIG FIXTURING SYSTEM, BASED ON THE CONCEPTS CURRENTLY UTILIZED IN OUR ROBOTIC COMPONENT SAW THE AUTO OMNI, COULD LITERALLY REMOVE JIG SET UP TIME AS A SIGNIFICANT COST FACTOR IN TRUSS FABRICATION, THEREBY SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASING PRODUCTION WHILE DRASTICALLY CUTTING LABOR COSTS. THE PROJECT WOULD DESIGN AND BUILD ONE OR TWO PROTOTYPE ROBOTIC WORK CELLS TO CONFIRM THE FEASIBILITY OF HAVING SEVEN OR MORE SUCH CELLS, FUNCTIONING WITH THE REQUIRED PRECISION, TO CREATE AN AUTOMATED TRUSS FIXTURING SYSTEM.