Dewey Thomas specializes in precision sheet metal and folding solutions at Capital Machine. Dewey works closely with manufacturers in industries such as HVAC to engineer forming processes that improve part accuracy and repeatability, reduce labor requirements, and simplify installation in the field.

Every year, an Atlanta-area HVAC manufacturer was losing hundreds of hours to field installation. Rooftop jobs in difficult environments ran long, parts needed extra work to fit, and crews ended up solving problems on-site that should have been settled long before they arrived.

On the surface, nothing was wrong in the shop. The company could make its parts. What it struggled to do was make them repeatably, and with the accuracy needed to redesign them for better fit-up in the field.

Because the existing equipment couldn’t hold that precision, parts had to be designed too simply — and the complexity got pushed downstream to the jobsite: extra time making things fit, rework, and complications the crews had to solve themselves. None of it looked significant on its own, but over a year of installations, it added up.

Starting with the Parts, Not the Machine

When it came time to evaluate new equipment, the conversation was never simply about buying a faster machine. It was about what the parts could become if design and forming were controlled together.

The process we chose was a Schroeder folding machine, selected for the flexibility and speed to create accurate, repeatable parts.

Getting there took more than a specification sheet. We ran several demonstrations and worked directly with the company’s engineer, showing how parts could be redesigned around the capabilities of the machine rather than simply reproduced the way they had always been made.

That step mattered as much as the equipment itself. Repeatability and accuracy are only valuable if the parts are designed to take advantage of them.

From Two Press Brakes to One Folder

After the machine was purchased and installed, the customer found a benefit that went beyond the original goal: the folder eliminated the need for two larger press brakes that were slow and required multiple operators to run.

With the planned redesigns in place, the results compounded. The company saved labor dollars not only in manufacturing but in installation. The redesigned parts allowed for simpler packaging, more complex designs, less rework, and fewer issues during installation.

The hours that had been disappearing on rooftops began coming back — not because the field crews changed, but because the parts arriving on-site were designed and formed to fit.

Why Fit-Up Problems Start on the Shop Floor

Field installation is often treated as its own world, separate from manufacturing. When installations run long, the instinct is to look at the jobsite — the crew, the conditions, the schedule.

But many field problems are actually design and forming problems. When a shop can only form parts one way, designs get simplified to match the equipment, and the complexity gets pushed downstream to the installer. Every simplified joint or workaround becomes time spent in the field, where labor is hardest to manage and conditions are least forgiving.

That is why the ability to control design and forming together matters so much. When forming equipment can hold accuracy and repeatability, engineers gain the freedom to design parts for the installation — not just for the machine. The savings show up in places a machine justification rarely captures: packaging, rework, and hours on a rooftop.

The Takeaway

For this manufacturer, the value of the investment was never just speed on the shop floor.

The right forming solution combined the flexibility to produce accurate, repeatable parts with a design process built around what the machine could do. That combination replaced two slower machines, reduced labor in manufacturing, and — most importantly — cut hundreds of hours from field installations every year.

The lesson travels well beyond HVAC: if installation is where your hours are going, the solution may not be in the field at all. It may be on the shop floor.