EXPERIENCED CRATERS

You will find no better tool for experienced craters than Crate Pro! Crate Pro handles everything for you from design to costing to weights-and-dimensions, and when the job is done, Crate Pro saves all your history so you can find, track and copy any design, customer history or activity.

A Few Words About the Trade...

Before moving forward we want to be clear that Crate Pro is written for expert and novice craters alike. We try to use the simplest and most standard terminology possible.

For simplicity everything in Crate Pro is called a crate or a pallet. Don't worry! We know the difference between a wooden box and a crate. Just remember… Crate Pro will design them all accurately, no matter what you want to call them!

Crate Pro will design military specification wooden boxes and crates with most (if not all) reasonable commercial modifications such as drop ends, plywood with lumber bases or cleating modifications just to name a few. Sometimes it all sounds TOO simple to be true, but it is! We have more than 10 years into the design of this version. Our software has been tested on orders of over 100 crates and on crates for products over 100,000# with unbelievable accuracy.

Extreme Control

Crate Pro gives you extreme control over your crate design. Placement and lengths of all your framing members or cleats is handled for you automatically. This means you NEVER have a problem with panel fit.

With our new Rules based methodology, you select how intermediate or filler materials are placed from a drop-down menu then Crate Pro handles all the measurements for you! What could be easier?

After Crate Pro calculated the initial design, you have control to change any piece of material and can change intermediate cleats to be just the way you want them.

Even thought Crate Pro allows you to make lots of adjustments, you will often find them unnecessary. Crate Pro comes with a setup file that handles nearly 10,000 fields of default data for you. They are all prepopulated and everyone of them is adjustable by you. Typically 99.75% of the fields are not changed by users, and the other 0.25% of the fields are often changed. Either way, you have total control. Crate Pro uses all this default setup data when it designs a new crate.

Information Overload

With our new Crate Pro you will think you're experiencing Information Overload! You get most any data imaginable from Crate Pro.

Here's just a little of the information Crate Pro gives you...

• Outside dims
• Tare weight *
• Shipping weight *
• Manufacturing time per saw or process
• Product cost, markup and profit
• Labor cost, markup and profit
• Selling price
• Complete and accurate cutting instructions
• Detailed and clear diagrams of all the crate styles
• Complete material list including fasteners, and blocking & bracing

*All weights are estimated based on wood weights. Obviously that can fluctuate, but Crate Pro provides you with extremely accurate data based on the calculated amount of material used (including fasteners).

Industry Standardization

Dept. of Defense; Dept. of Agriculture; ASTM; DOT; UN; Bob's Packing & Crating! They've all written their own standards. The funny (or not so funny) thing is that many of them are EXACTLY the same. Some are very similar but have different names. How can you bring it all together? Crate Pro uses a new standardized naming convention. For example: a LPO-001 is the first ('001') design of a L ight duty, P lywood sheathed, O uter cleated crate. Also known as a PPP-B-601(A) or an ASTM D6251(A). This allows us to add and manage thousands of individual styles of crates and they can all be related to the traditional crating standards you know and love! Crate Pro also comes with CLEAR and EASY TO READ diagrams of all the styles of crates, so it's easy to identify and cross-reference the crate you want.

What? You say you created a few styles of your own? Most modifications we have seen can be designed with our current options but if yours is really different, give us a call. For a small fee at most we can add your styles for your own personal use.

Help Wanted: Crate Assembler with 10 years experience. Call for details.

Now there's an ad you won't see in the classified section of the newspaper!

We all know that crating is a small industry. Although carpenters are great at building homes, they're just not right for building crates. Training new sawyers and assemblers comes right from the bottom line. That's why Crate Pro comes with everything you need to educate and improve the skills of your entire staff from the new guy on the floor, to the experienced design engineer.

Crate Pro ships with 35 government specifications that will help you assure that the modifications you make are structurally sound. In addition to crating specs., you get specs. on packing, barrier sealing, padding and many other subjects. All the specs. included are not copy protected and fully duplicatable.

Diagrams of all the major styles of crates are included. Just print them out, and stick them on the wall near the saws and assembly stations.

Accurate Cutting Instructions the First Time

Have you ever had a Cutting Instruction Sheet for a rush job go to production only to have the job stopped because of questions or errors? Who hasn't! With Crate Pro all your cutting instructions are clear and the form is laid out in a manner that explains where each piece of material goes. If you add some Blocking & Bracing there's plenty of room for notes that stay with the record and don't get lost.

And speaking of lost... What if the cutting sheet gets lost? Anyone that has permissions can just print out a new one. The 'new' one is always the latest one, so there's no problems with having someone grab an old revision off the desk only to find out 1/2 hour before the crate is supposed to be on a plane!

Clear Communication and History

Crate Pro is a database program. That means every design you ever create is stored in a list and can be recalled, copied and modified years down the road (with the proper user permissions.) You can even attach digital pictures to each design or job record as well as spreadsheets, drawings or MS Word documents.

Security

Crate Pro's built in security system allows a small business to turn off all user login requirements when they don't want them. Larger businesses can control what person can create, print or view information based on their position in the company or their need for information. This helps keep your information secure while providing as much information as possible to the people who need it.

Modern Tools for the Modern World

Crate Pro takes advantage of the new digital age. You can e-mail quotes or cut sheets in seconds! Even a phone call or map is only one click away! While designing a crate or while viewing a customer record you can press 'Call' and Crate Pro will use your computer's built in phone dialer to call the customer. (A modem and phone dialer are required but often comes with new computers.) Pressing 'Map' will bring you directly to MapQuest.com (an Internet connection is required) and show you the customer's location. This is instant and useful information for your delivery drivers and salespeople alike.

Single- or Multi-User

Crate Pro can be run in single-user mode for fast and easy access to all areas of the program. This is excellent for small businesses that have a limited number of people who access the program.

Multi-user is best for larger, production shops. Turn on or off features that allow users to view or change various information. Users can be assigned permissions for anything from Administrator to a very limited user.

** Crate and Pallet diagrams are static. They are representational of the Style selected. You may attach digital pictures, CAD drawings or any other digital file to each design for fast and easy reference.