Times have changed. When I started at Mason Industries over 31 years ago I was put behind a drafting table, equipped with a set of triangles, a tee square and few pencils. A couple of years later Norm Mason gave everyone a calculator (I am still using the same TI-56 SLR). New engineers can design and draw a hundred story building without ever putting pencil to paper. Spending hours copying and sending out 13 sets of drawings is a thing of the past. The reason? Computers and the internet. Our customers send us a complete package of drawings via email, we work on them in Autocad and submit them electronically. All this without cutting down a single tree, a blueprint made, or a drawing scanned into our system. This saves a ton of paper and a tremendous amount of time.
The latest improvement to all of this digital work is the electronic PE seal and signature. The figure above shows the basic format. The text to the right of the stamp is generated by the digital software to let everyone know that it is a digital signature along with the date and time it was signed. These signatures are electronically locked and cannot be revised or altered by anyone, including the engineer who signed it. We keep a copy of the drawing before adding the signature for revisions. Our staff of professional engineers is licensed in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, so we can provide this service to everyone.
Prints are becoming scarce on jobsite’s too. I have two family members that are Local 638 Steamfitters here in NYC. They both have been trained in the use of electronic tablets with drawings in place of blue prints. They report to their supervisor in the morning and download the prints of the area they are going to work in. Gone are the rolls of blueprints sitting on makeshift wooden tables where they got burned from the errant torch or stained by a leaking pipe (or misplaced taco).
The Mason Industries staff of professional engineers will continue to utilize the latest computer technology to improve our service and presentation.
Best regards,
Jim Tauby P.E.
Chief Executive Engineer