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Daw has changed the course of the sheet metal industry several times over his sopius year career, and he says he's not done yet That's why he's SNIPS 2021 Sheet Metal Industry Icon.
SNIPS Sheet Metal Industry Icon for 2021 is David Daw, an inventor who's been innovating in the HVAC fabrication industry for over 50 years, He's currently a Mestek Machinery engineering consultant and also receives royalties on his inventions from DuctMate, a unit of DMI Companies,
Despite a long and successful career, Daw says he's not done inventing, He's still developing new products with sheet metal shops around the country,
"My whole career, I've put everything into my inventions," Daw says, "The only thing that keeps me going through more than six years of product development is the contractors who are telling me they need this, 'It's a home run,"'
In 1980, Daw was a sales rep for DuctMate, having started his career at GripNail in the '70s, He started Quick Duct with Lockformer, In the 90s, Daw developed the first generation of Cornermatics and licensed them to Iowa Precision, now part of Mestek,
Slide-on, four-bolt connector with a company called Quick Duct, competing for market share with five other companies that came to market around the same time, four-bolt connector in general, both the slide-on that DuctMate had, or the glange
Speaking to why he thinks Daw has earned the recognition, competitor Pat Rossetto, president of Duro-Dyne, has high praise. In the history of his company, now helmed by David Krupnick and himself, he admits Duro-Dyne took a wrong turn in not taking Daw up on the first machine ever capable of making a stackable corner
"He went to DuctMate, which was loose competition at the time, and they brought his stackable corner to market. That revolutionized the industry," Rossetto says, comparing DuctMate to a razor and Mestek to a blade manufacturer,
"Daw's introduction of the corner and the machine to insert that corner was an exponential step in efficiency of assembling ductwork," he adds,
Daw holds over ten patents in the ductwork industry, as does Herb Fischer, a former engineer for Engel Industries, now part of Mestek Machinery, Of the more than seven million easy connectors sold through Duro-Dyne's distribution network...