Easing Labor Shortages With Roof Edge Measurement Technology

By Cass Jacoby, RCS Reporter. 

The Falcon Roof Measurement Tool is revolutionizing the industry. 

Brad Van Dam, VP of sales for MTL Holdings, the parent company of Metal-Era and Hickman Edge Systems meets with RCS President Heidi J. Ellsworth for a Roofing Road Trips episode to talk about the release of the Falcon Roof Measurement Tool. 

“The Falcon is really the culmination of a little over a year and a half, almost two years, of investment in new technology for us,” says Brad. “It's the combination of some new technology and existing technology, but it really allowed us the ability to get closer to measuring, I don't want to say perfection, but accuracy to the point where we're within thousands of an inch and tenths of a degree and eliminate a lot of human error.” 

This technology is revolutionizing the industry by allowing the Metal-Era and Hickman teams to measure the perimeter of a roof, create an installation and fabrication map in real-time, and eliminate errors in details down to a tenth of a degree. “What's really awesome about this deployment, is that a less experienced tech or someone who normally would have to hand draw this with a lot of chances for error, now can physically do this with audible reminders of when to measure, when to stop,” says Brad. “It creates that map on the roof, functionally for everyone.” 

This is helpful when it comes to labor saving, as a tech typically can measure several hundred of these roofs in a year. Now techs can handle multiple contractors and do several hundred roofs in a year with newer technology that is faster, lending far more efficiency to the process.   

“This is an easy way for me to take a couple hundred hours out of a project that I normally would have and redeploy those hundred hours,” says Brad. “Functionally, I can get on and off a roof faster.” 

Listen to the entire podcast to learn more about the Falcon and how Metal-Era and Hickman Edge Systems are working to provide solutions to productivity problems in the field. 

Learn more about Metal-Era in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.metalera.com.