Machines for HVAC & ductwork shops
Duct work is thin stock, short bends and high repetition — the opposite of the heavy plate shops. Tonnage is almost never the constraint. What decides whether a machine works in a duct shop is speed, tooling access and footprint.
The parts this industry bends
- Duct sections and plenum panels — long, shallow flanges on thin galvanised or aluminium sheet.
- S-cleats, drive cleats and corner angles — small, numerous, and made in batches. This is shear-and-brake work at volume.
- Fittings — offsets, transitions, square elbows: the parts where finger tooling and throat clearance decide what is possible.
- Trim and flashing — narrow strip work where a light brake or a finger brake is faster than a full press brake.
- Curved and radiused panels — the jobs where a wheel or roller does the forming and the brake only prepares blanks.
What actually decides the machine
Width of stock first. Match the shear to the widest sheet you will ever put through it — duct panels and plenum skins are wide, and a shear that cannot take the full width turns every blank into a two-step job. Our guillotine shears run from 4 × 1600 mm up through 30 mm thickness classes, and the swing shears cover the mid-range with backgauges to 600 mm.
Cycle speed over force. When the part takes 8 tons, the machine that wins is the one that cycles fastest and changes over quickest — not the one rated 100 tons. Electro-hydraulic and servo drives shorten the ram cycle and idle time on exactly this kind of work.
Tooling access. Duct fittings have flanges pointing in every direction by the time you finish them. Finger-type tooling lets an already-formed flange pass through the tooling zone — without it, whole classes of fitting are simply not bendable on your machine.
Footprint and mobility. Duct is fabricated where it is installed. Portable machines and the 3-in-1 combos exist for the job-site half of the trade; the fixed shop floor wants a shear and a brake that stay put.
Machine lines that fit
- Guillotine shearing machines — the workhorse: 45 model sizes, backgauge standard, for all duct gauges.
- Small-tonnage press brakes — 30-60 tons with short beds is the duct-shop brake.
- Brake-and-shear 2-in-1 machines — one machine, two operations, for shops where floor space is the budget.
- Sheet metal 3-in-1 machines — shear, bend and punch combined; common in small duct and roofing shops.
- Portable fabrication machines — for on-site trimming and bending where carrying the part back to the shop is not an option.
Specification mistakes we see
- Buying a big brake for thin work. A 200-ton machine bending 26 ga cleats is slower, heavier on the floor and more expensive than a small one — and the V-opening you end up using is tiny.
- Under-sizing the shear width. See above: width is the constraint that repeats on every single part.
- Standard tooling on fitting work. If fittings are part of the mix, finger tooling has to be in the quote from the start.
- Assuming a brake makes spiral pipe. It does not. Roll formers do. We will say so.
Frequently asked questions
What machine does an HVAC duct shop actually need?
In most duct shops the shear does more work than the brake. Blanks and cleats are straight cuts in thin galvanised stock; the bends are short and shallow. A guillotine shear sized to your stock width, plus a small-tonnage brake (or a 2-in-1 / 3-in-1 combo in a smaller shop), covers the majority of the work. Spiral and snap-lock pipe forming is a different machine family entirely — a roll former, not a brake.
What tonnage for bending galvanised duct steel?
Galvanised duct stock runs 26 to 20 ga (0.48-0.91 mm). Even with generous V-openings, that is well under 30 tons for typical cleat and fitting bends. The tonnage question is genuinely easy here — the hard questions are cycle speed, tooling access and whether the machine fits the shop.
Does galvanised coating damage tooling?
The zinc coating is abrasive to tooling over time, and it transfers — zinc pickup on punch and die faces eventually marks the work and accelerates wear. Hardened, polished tooling and regular cleaning handle it. It is a maintenance item, not a reason to choose a different machine.
Can a press brake make duct fittings?
Yes for the folded-and-bent fitting types — offsets, transitions, square elbows — provided the flanges can clear the tooling, which is what finger-type tooling is for. Our box and pan guide covers the geometry. Round spiral pipe and snap-lock seam are roll-forming operations and we will tell you so rather than sell you a brake for them.
Should a small duct contractor buy a 3-in-1 combo machine?
Often yes. Shear, bend and a light punch in one footprint, one foundation and one power drop is a real saving when the shop is one bay and the crew moves between operations. The trade-off is cycle speed versus dedicated machines — for duct volumes that trade-off usually favours the combo.
Where to go next
Thin-stock work still needs its numbers checked — the tonnage calculator takes seconds and settles the force question. For the fitting geometry, read the box and pan brake guide, and for cutting capacity the size guide covers how bed and width choices interact. When you are ready, send your typical part list — we quote the pair of machines, not just one.
Tell us what your shop cuts and bends most
Stock width, gauge range and the fittings you make most — we will come back with the shear and brake combination that fits the work and the floor.