Pryda’s Turb-O-Web system saves fabricators time and money
Pryda’s Turb-O-Web system
While 2007 was a tough year for many fabricators, Pryda’s Turb-O-web system saved many time, money and resources.
The Tub-O-Web system, available from Pryda , is an innovative system in manufacturing roof trusses, saving fabricators time, money, resources and resulting in a better quality product.
Pryda’s Product Development Manager Bernard Kennelly said that audits of truss production have shown that fabricators using Pryda’s Turb-O-web system are seeing an across the board increase in productivity of up to 10%.
Research has shown that through use of Pryda’s Turb-O-web system, timber usage has gone down by 16% for webs and 2% overall.
But most significantly saw shed labour down by a staggering 25% while saw maintenance costs were down by 30%, resulting in overall productivity increases of more than 10%.
“In these times of increasing interest rates and impending reduction in production or pressure on pricing it is the only system that guarantees these advantages at a fraction of the cost of any other option,” said Bermard Kennelly.
The patented Turb-O-Web system makes use of webs with a standard semicircular end and approximately 18 standard lengths.
“This can save the fabricator literally thousands of saw setups per month. In some cases it has increased the pieces per setup from 6 to in excess of 500. This has greatly increased the capacity of existing saws and reduced the required labour,” said Bernard Kennelly.
Some fabricators have doubled the cutting capacity of their existing equipment by buying in finished Turb-O-Webs from a number of different suppliers such as Programmed Timber Supplies located in St Marys NSW.
The reduced work load has also resulted in a significant reduction in the cost of maintenance and the associated down time. Both treated and untreated webs can be obtained from suppliers.
Documentation has been published certifying that webs cut from timber previously treated with the Termi-nator or Tanalised systems require no further end treatment to maintain their treatment rating.
Turb-O-Webs can be manufactured in house on a variety of equipment. The economical high volume option is the Two pass Turbo cut through an existing multi-head saw such as an Auto Omni, Cyber Saw or similar. Packs of standard Turb-O-Webs can be produced in this way taking less than 4 seconds per web to complete.
The Decisaw is another option, which is more dedicated to the high production of Turb-O-Webs, blocks, studs and other standard components.
In addition to the above 2 options, Turb-O-Web International has a range of other options that would suit operations of any size and preferred type of cutting. That is the base stock being either shorts, mid range, long length or a combination of the three.
Because the standard length is in 150 mm increments, the waste is reduced significantly and there is an overall reduction in the fabricators truss timber bill of up to 2% said Bernard.
The Turb-O-Web system produces the required combined optimisation and timber cost minimisation for chords and webs. In both the USA and Australia, fabricators use the Turb-O-Web system with linear saws to maximise the benefits.
The use of standard web components means that the webs are not truss or job specific and can be ready and stocked prior to a job being detailed. This means there is a significant reduction in the cutting and assembly time of urgent orders.
The standard Turb-O-Webs are far more easily installed into truss profiles and much less time is wasted, with no rolling webs over, end for ending webs or swapping web to alternate locations, as is commonly the practice with larger trusses or unskilled operators. The more complex the trusses shape the easier it is to install standard Turb-O-Webs.
Irrespective of any variation in the depths timber forming the chords of a truss profile (say 90mm ±2mm), the nail plated joints formed with Turb-O-Webs are consistently tighter, of more uniform shape and of consistently better quality than the conventionally cut equivalent.
A Turb-O-Web truss is automatically generated through the Pryda Roof and Pryda Build software in the same way as a conventional truss, guaranteeing the adequacy of all designs.
The web configurations are almost identical for both except with the use of the standard length Turb-O-Webs; up to 16% less timber is required in the webs while in addition the Turb-O-Webs joints have a better distribution of the nail plate teeth for handling purposes.
The Pryda Roof and Pryda Build software both are capable of generating roofs with 100% Turb-O-Webs usage. Enhancements incorporated into Pryda Build have increased the percentage of standard length Turb-O-Webs used and have increased the flexibility in being able to manipulate and optimise truss profiles.
According to Custombuilt Frames and Trusses Managing Director Greg Dobson, Turb-O-Webs are suitable for all plant sizes.
“I have been a turbo web user for the past 7 years. The big advantage I have found is when buying in stock turbo webs. The output from the inline saw is increased due to the higher volume of top and bottom chords being cut.”
“This results in more actual jobs being cut ready for pressing. This then off sets the need for another saw and sawyer to cut standard webs, which helps eliminate exposure to saws, which is one of the biggest safety issues we face on site.
“The truss design software produces a stock draw for turbo webs which can be drawn and delivered to the press to avoid any delays at the truss jig.
“While the connector plate sizes do slightly increase and the price of turbo webs is dearer than buying web material from timber supplier, the additional cost overall doesn’t come close to the savings of a saw and sawyer.
“I will be using turbo webs at our new manufacturing plant at Braemar and would recommend that fabricators look closely at the advantages, safety and cost savings,” said Greg Dobson.
There are also other benefits for the builder associated with the Turb-O-Web system. Builders who use the Turb-O-Web say the system results in a more uniform roof and ceiling line and a better quality truss than the conventional method, as the system is more tolerant to variations in timber size and subsequent nailplate joint displacement.
With close to 100% optimisation of the timber used in webs in the factory and minimal waste, less timber is required, placing less pressure on valuable timber resources.
11-Aug-2008