The Problem
Several of Tripar’s customers asked for a more robust bar hanger solution than its current and hugely popular #1287 bar hangers, all looking for a bar hanger more suitable for commercial applications.
Upon visiting one particular customer in January 2016 that asked for this, President Lloyd Sevack explained that Tripar’s #1287 bar hangers (or any other bar hanger with 1/4” x 1/2” cross section) are designed to fit in the integral pockets in Tripar’s current plaster frames. Any commercial bar would need a larger cross section, which in turn meant it would not fit into the integral pockets. To this, that same customer asked if we could produce a bar hanger having the same cross-section as common 1/2” x 1-1/2” C-Channel; one of the shapes that was readily accepted in Tripar’s existing #1254 Butterfly Brackets.
Lloyd was aware of 1/2” x 1-1/2” C-Channel bar hangers, but besides these often having tolerancing issues that lead to assembly problems, he also had no desire to simply copy what already existed. Tripar continually looks to develop innovative solutions, so the desire was to develop a singular L-shaped design, so that when an identical piece was inverted, an interlocking and fully functional C-channel shaped commercial bar hanger would result.
The Solution
Focusing on this aim of a singular L-shaped design, many concepts were developed by Tripar’s engineering team, all flawed, until a combination of these and some clever engineering yielded the unique L-shaped solution.
From that point onward, additional features such as nesting, fasternerless locking, robust extensibility, joist & T-Bar compatibility, and graduations for ease & speed in use, to name a few of the innovative and eminently patentable features offered, in what is since known as,
L-Bars™.
L-Bars™.
The Result
A 10-stage progressive die was designed and built in-house by Tripar tooling specialists. By August 2016 (within 8 months from that initial customer request), Tripar was in full production.
Many customers have since successfully adopted Tripar’s L-Bars™, with over 2 million sold.
Video showing the L-Bars™ Assembly and Installation
