HVAC contractors do an amazing variety of work and require many different tools and pieces of equipment. When creating ductwork for a building, for example, they need specific things to work with sheet metal and even more precise tools to create ducts.
Metalworking Equipment For Ducts
Working with sheet metal is a dangerous and tricky task. Having the proper tools for the job can make the difference between successful work and painful failure. Here are some of the tools HVAC contractors need to work on ducts:
- Lock Forming Machine – Presses sheet metal into particular shapes so that pieces can be locked together into one solid piece that won’t easily come apart.
- Flange Forming Machine – A flange allows for pieces of duct to be joined and taken apart quickly. The flange forming machine presses sheet metal into flanges.
- Folding Machine – A folding machine, quite simply, is used to bend sheet metal into required shapes.
- Leveller Beading Machines – These machines level and bead (press shapes into) pieces of sheet metal.
- Shearing Machine – A shearing machine uses a hydraulic press to cut sheet metal.
- Coil Rack – These racks are used to store and transporting sheet metal rounds or coils.
- Shearing and Beading Machine – These machines combine the functionality of a beading machine with a light-weight shearing press.
- Hydraulic Rivet Clipper – This is used to remove protruding ends of damaged rivets.
- Notching Machines – These are usually used to shear sheet metal at specific angles to form corners. They have hydraulic and pedal press models.
- Pneumatic Corner Mounting Machine – Easily and quickly forms corners out of rectangular ducts.
- Vertical Lock Seam Closer – These machines lock the seams pressed into two pieces of sheet metal, joining them together.
- Partial Three-Roller Bending Machines – A variation on a folding machine, these are used to bend sheet metal into desired shapes.
- Angle Steel Rolling Round Machines – Angle rolling machines allow for a pipe, bar of metal, sheet metal, etc. to be fed in while being continuously bent at a particular angle.
- Reel-Ray Machine – These machines are used to create ribs to join together round tubes of sheet metal.
- Shrimp Bend Machines – Used to create elbow bends (also known as “shrimp” bends) for ducts and round pipes.
- Duct Dedicated CNC Plasma Cutting Machine – Plasma cutting machines are used to cut out specific blueprints from sheet metal. A duct dedicated plasma cutter is built specifically for the special cuts needed to form complicated portions of ductwork.
- Spiral Duct Machine – Spiral ducts are the newest type of duct to enter the market. These machines are used to form strips of metal into spiral ducts.
- Duct Manufacturing Auto Lines – These systems are all-in-one manufacturing lines to create ductwork automatically. There are many variations of complexity for these machine lines to create different types of ductwork at different speeds.
Not all of these machines are necessary for every HVAC contractor, but many of them make creating ducts far less difficult and time-consuming. If a contractor has the space to store these tools and can afford them, he or she should consider a purchase.
To learn more about HVAC ducts and the equipment needed to create them, contact Cool Blew Inc. and click the button below to see additional energy saving options you have available to you.
