An intense research regimen might seem out of place for a company that provides fasteners and connectors to home builders.

That's not the case with Simpson Manufacturing Co. Research is Simpson's life blood.

Tucked away in a Stockton industrial park is a research center where Simpson is developing new products. The centerpiece of the laboratory is a two-story wall structure that Simpson can use to mimicmultiple events that can stress or wreck a house or other building.

"It's the rival of any university lab," said Steve Pryor, research and development manager for Simpson Strong-Tie, the chief operating subsidiary of Simpson Manufacturing. "Our goal is to study things that aren't getting studied."

The Tyrell Gilb Research Laboratory opened in 2003. It was named in memory of the eponymous Tyrell "Tye" Gilb, who led Simpson's R&D programs for many years. Yet the catalyst for the creation of the lab was a disaster that wrecked freeways and buildings in Southern California about a decade before the research center opened.

"This lab is a direct result of the Northridge earthquake," Pryor said.

That quake called attention to the flaws in how scientists researched and designed buildings to withstand major seismic events.

After the 1994 quake, inspectors found that many of their assumptions were faulty about how well buildings could stand up to quakes. Those flaws were outlined in a report by the University of Southern California's School of Architecture

"Light wood structures were assumed to be resistant to seismic load because of their resilient qualities," two USC professors wrote in their 1999 study. "However, most of these assumptions have been shattered due to the damages inflicted by the Northridge tremor."

As a result, researchers cast about for new ways to study the resilience of structures when they are jolted by quakes, hurricanes, tornadoes and other events. Scientists wanted to move beyond the primarily theoretical methods of analyzing structures.

"Northridge focused attention on research into full systems," Pryor said.

The research center also is crucial to Simpson's strategy to present its customers with connectors and other devices that are ever more innovative.

"We have a number of really intriguing research projects," said Thomas Fitzmyers, chief executive and president of Simpson Manufacturing. "The lab is one very important part of it."

Simpson executives say the laboratory is just part of a legacy of research and breakthroughs at the company, many of them discovered by Tye Gilb, who died a few years ago. Gilb started his relationship with Simpson by developing "one or two fairly simple products," Fitzmyers said.

That launched 35 years of innovation created by Gilb, according to the company.

"Many of the patents in the country that are in this connector category were created by Tye," Fitzmyers said. "He was a terrific man."

Simpson hopes to carry on that legacy with research breakthroughs related to earthquakes, high winds and other structure-related issues. Much of that research is tied to the two-story mock wall in the research center. The wall moves with huge hydraulic pumps that mimic different types of stress that a building might encounter.

"We can create something like an earthquake or a hurricane with this," Fitzmyers said. "We can design products that can withstand these events."

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