Local man to take invention to national exhibit

Does 'Toyota Way' Really Work Outside Japan?
Good Diet's Recipes

By HALEY HUGHES

Staff writer

It may very well be the next big thing.

From fledgling inventor Donald Waters comes Timbertite, a new way for commercial truck drivers to secure dunnage to their vehicles. Dunnage is a term for spare pieces of scrap wood that is used to support loads, like cargo that is transported on a 18-wheel flatbed truck.

Typically, trucking companies and their drivers secure dunnage under the beds of trucks with either rope or elastic cord. But the knots often shake loose with the movement of the truck, especially over uneven roads.

"Cargo needs a means of securement and needs a means of proper securement," said Waters, who is from Beech Island. "Until now there's no way to store them. I literally just touched a cord and it came loose. I'm a thinker. That just got my little brain thinking."

What encouraged him even more was an experience while he himself was driving a truck on a construction site.

"The dunnage that I had secured under my trailer became loose and slid to the passenger side, hitting a bridge support as I passed through a construction site," he said. "It was enough to get me thinking even more. I didn't want to improve a product. I wanted to create a product."

The Timbertite features a 5,000-pound capacity polyester strap and a compression spring to maintain tension. All one has to do is secure the hook into the eyebolt on the spring assembly and tighten as desired.

"I designed every part of it," Waters said. "Nothing is store bought. There were a few prototypes that got thrown away. Now I've got it to where I want it."

As far as he knows, rope or elastic cord does not meet the standards of securing cargo on commercial trucks. Waters feels Timbertite meets or exceeds such standards.

Timbertite received its patent in 1999 but now Waters is looking for a licensee or a manufacturer. He will be attending INPEX — the Invention and New Product Exhibition — in Pittsburgh, Pa., on June 6-9 in hopes of doing just that.

"I'm very much looking forward to the show in Pittsburgh," he said. "I think it's an asset of safety to the trucking industry. I'll feel good about myself if I've known I've done something to make safety better."

Local man to take invention to national exhibit

GPSDude Maps Out Success
Meet Ms. Fix-It
AdSense useful links