Stainless Steel Fabrication Dallas: The In-House Production Process That Gets Results

A fabrication shop that takes restaurant orders is not the same thing as a fabrication team that knows restaurants inside and out. The first manufactures the stainless steel parts as per the purchase order specifications. The second provides pieces that match the kitchen design, coordinate with the MEP rough-in, incorporate the equipment schedule, and arrive on site ready for installation without field modification. In Dallas, restaurant owners who have lived through both know what works better.

Here’s the real story of how professional restaurant level Stainless steel fabrication Dallas actually works, from first conversation to installation.

Phase 1: Getting to Know the Kitchen Before You Draw Anything

The fabrication process that will make pieces that actually work starts before any drawings are made. First, understand the operating model of the kitchen. How many covers will the restaurant do, what cooking methods are necessary for the menu, how product flows from receiving through prep and cooking to the pass, and what the health department will require at each station.

And this understanding of the operation dictates all the other decisions about fabrication. A 300-cover-a-night restaurant with a wood-fire cooking program needs heavier-gauge hoods, larger worktable surfaces at the prep stations and more robust shelving in the walk-in than a 75-cover neighborhood restaurant with a simple gas range. If the two kitchens are built to the same specification, one will be overbuilt and the other underbuilt.

At the Garland shop the design and fabrication team starts with a station-by-station flow analysis that maps every step from receipt to service before a single dimension is put on a drawing.

Phase Two: Drafting & Coordination

Once the operational analysis is complete, fabrication drawings are created for all items in scope. These drawings contain

• Plans for each piece in its exact location in relation to the kitchen layout

• Elevation with all dimensions, gage specifications, and connection details

• Detailed drawings for more complex features such as coved backsplash corners, built-in sinks and integrated drain channels

• Utility connection information showing points of gas, electrical, water and drain connections for each item requiring them

The stainless steel fabrication Dallas drawings are reviewed concurrently with the kitchen design drawings, MEP coordination drawings and equipment schedule. Fabrication location versus rough-in location conflicts are identified in the drawing stage and are resolved before any construction.

Phase Three: Field Measurements The

After drawings are approved and prior to any material being cut, the fabrication team visits the actual space and takes field measurements at each planned piece location. This step is never skipped and is not optional even when the architectural drawings look right. Every restaurant build has construction tolerances, shifted structural elements and adjusted rough-in locations. The only way to take care of those things is in the field.

Measurements are taken back to the shop and compared with the approved drawings and any necessary adjustments are made to the fabrication documents before cutting begins. It’s this one step that prevents the most expensive and frustrating outcome in restaurant fabrication . That being a finished piece that doesn’t fit in the space it was built for .

Phase Four: Manufacture Internally

The scope includes the entire manufacturing process for each stainless piece in the Garland shop, which is 8,000 square feet of fabrication production.

Cutting: The 60,000 PSI waterjet system can handle complex profiles and intricate shapes. Standard straight line cuts and notches are made with the shear and plasma table depending on material thickness and edge quality requirements.

Forming The press brake does all the bending work, from simple 90-degree flanges on backsplashes to complex multi-break profiles on hood faces and decorative panels.

Welding: All food contact and visible seam work TIG welded. The TIG process produces clean, consistent welds that can be ground and polished to a smooth, seamless finish to meet NSF sanitation requirements.

Grinding and Polishing: All external welds on food-contact surfaces are ground flush and polished to match the surrounding base metal finish. Polished surfaces have uniform brush direction.

Quality Inspection: Before leaving the facility, each piece is inspected for dimensional accuracy, weld quality and surface finish. Pieces that are not up to specification are corrected in the shop, not delivered to the job.

Phase Five Delivery & Installation

Each piece is delivered and installed in the space by the same team that made it. That’s important because the fabrication team knows the dimensions and every connection detail of every piece they built. If there’s a small field adjustment to a utility connection point, they do it right then, rather than calling an outside shop and waiting for a response.

custom metal fabrication Dallas that is fabricated and installed by one team will always have faster installations with less field problems than outside source fabrication.

The Ability of Specialty Fabrication

In addition to standard kitchen cabinetry, Garland’s shop fabricates specialty stainless items that most Dallas cabinet shops can’t do. The waterjet system that operates at 60,000 PSI cuts decorative perforations, custom profiles and artistic elements in stainless steel with a precision that cannot be achieved with other methods of cutting. Shun by Yama Sushi Dallas incorporated custom waterjet-cut stainless panels into the architecture of the dining room. The waterjet-cut metal signage that served as the visual identity for Manpuku Japanese BBQ Dallas was also produced by the same system.

Conclusions

Stainless steel fabrication Dallas done right is a process that begins with understanding the kitchen before anything is drawn, goes through field measurement and coordinated production and ends with installation by the same team that built every piece. Garland’s fabrication team produces results that outside vendors can’t consistently match with an 8,000 square foot in-house shop, a complete production process under one roof and no subcontractors at any stage. Request your free quote and feel the difference in-house production makes from the first measurement to the last installation.