Dimensions in.
Cut sheets out.
CrateForge turns a piece size or box spec into a complete, shop-ready cut sheet — skids, panels, framing, fasteners, and export protection — in the time it takes to answer the phone. Built for export packers, crating shops, and machinery movers who handle the heavy stuff.
The best crate shop in the county shouldn't run on memory
Most shops carry decades of hard-won know-how — skid schedules, framing rules, what holds up on a flat rack and what doesn't. But too often it lives in a veteran's head, a stack of paper forms, and a whiteboard by the saw.
It lives in one builder's head
When your senior crater is out — or retires — the shop slows down. The judgment calls on struts, cleats, and skid sizing walk out the door with them. CrateForge captures those standards so every sheet reflects your best builder's work.
Every request is a fire drill
A customer calls with a piece size and a due date. Someone works the math by hand, someone else transcribes it, and the saw crew waits. CrateForge takes the request straight to a calculated cut sheet — while the customer is still on the line.
Volume caps out at your estimator
You can only quote and build as fast as the people who know the numbers. With build logic in the system instead of on paper, your whole crew can take requests — and your shop can say yes to more work.
From phone call to saw line in three steps
Enter the piece
Key in what you know — piece size, inside dimensions, or box dimensions (L × W × H), weights, and box type: standard, slat, solid 2", knockdown, or reusable. Flag removable tops, sides, ends, and fasteners.
CrateForge calculates
Your shop's build standards do the rest: skid schedule, upper and lower framing members, vertical strut spacing, joists, plywood call-outs by thickness, and gross / tare / net weights per crate.
Print the cut sheet
Out comes a complete, shop-floor-ready sheet — skids, ends, sides, tops, special instructions, vapor barrier and desiccant spec. Hand it to the saw crew and start cutting. Every order is saved for reprint and repeat business.
Everything the saw crew needs, on one sheet
A CrateForge cut sheet reads the way your shop already talks. No CAD seat, no translation layer — quantities and sizes for every component, organized panel by panel, in the language of the floor.
Each sheet carries the order details your office needs too: company, order number, due date, production line, and crate-of-crate counts for multi-crate jobs.
Walk Through the ProductOn every cut sheet
- SkidsHeaders, runners, deck boards, rub blocks, recess decking, bolts, saddles, and supports
- Ends & SidesUpper / lower framing members, vertical struts, ply call-outs (3/8" or 1/2") with quantity and size
- TopsFraming members and joists, single or double layer, use-of-fall accounted for
- WeightsGross, tare, and net — per crate, ready for the packing list
- Export SpecVapor barrier bag, desiccant units, 4-mil / 6-mil poly, shrink wrap
- Special Instr.Job-specific notes that travel with the sheet, not on a sticky note
Shop-earned knowledge, made repeatable
- CaptureSit down with your best builders once — we encode the rules they carry in their heads
- StandardizeEvery builder cuts to the same sheet, first shift or third, veteran or new hire
- OnboardNew crew members build to house standards on day one instead of year three
- ProtectRetirements and turnover stop taking your build book with them
Get the build book out of heads and into the system
Every good crating operation runs on knowledge that was never written down: how deep to recess the decking, when a load wants double-layer tops, which fastener call-out survives an ocean crossing. That know-how is your competitive edge — and your biggest single point of failure.
CrateForge turns it into working logic. Your standards drive every calculation, so the sheet that prints is the sheet your most experienced hand would have drawn — every time, for every request.
Built around your shop — not the other way around
No two crating operations build the same way, and they shouldn't have to. A rigging house crating machine tools for export has different standards than a shop knocking down reusables for a production line. CrateForge is commissioned per shop: your terminology, your lumber and ply preferences, your skid schedules, your forms.
- Your design language. Sheets and screens use the terms your crew already uses — nobody relearns their own trade.
- Your techniques. Framing-in or framing-out, strut spacing, joist blocking, fastener schedules — the logic is tuned to how you actually build.
- Your industries. Machinery moving, export packing, defense, aerospace, plant relocation — we adapt the experience to the work you serve.
- Your workflow. Production lines, order numbers, due dates, and saved order history that matches how your office runs jobs today.
Say yes to more requests
Machinery movers live on response time. When a quote takes minutes instead of hours, you win the job — and when the cut sheet is ready before the truck is, you turn the floor faster. CrateForge lets the shop absorb more request volume without adding estimators or burning out the one person who knows the numbers.
More quotes out the door. More crates through the shop. Same headcount.
Ready to forge your first cut sheet?
Tell us about your shop and the work you handle. We'll show you CrateForge running on your kind of crates.
Request a Demo