Manufacturing financing services for a Lebanon, PA fabrication shop come down to matching each cost to its own route: equipment financing for a press brake, welding cell or plasma table, a term loan for rigging, power and tooling, and working capital for steel bought before a big order ships.
Funding routes for a Lebanon, PA fab shop buying a press brake, welding cell or plasma table, with an invented purchase, an order gap and the paperwork a partner may want.
Press brakes, welding cells and plasma tables
The machines a fab shop adds can come in a set order: a plasma table to cut parts in-house, a press brake to form them, then a robotic welding cell once the same parts repeat often enough to program. Each one arrives on a quote that a funding partner will want to see in full:
- Press brake: tonnage, bed length, the CNC control and backgauge axes
- Welding cell: robot, positioner, fixture table, fume extraction, guarding and programming hours
- Plasma table: cutting area, the power source, a downdraft or water table and the software license
- New or dealer-rebuilt, with the hours or the rebuild record for a used machine
- Delivery, rigging and what the dealer's price leaves out
Fabricated metal shops here run with crews. Of the 46 Lebanon County, PA establishments in NAICS 332 (fabricated metal products, machine shops included) in 2023, 32 had five or more paid employees and 14 had fewer than five (30.4%, County Business Patterns, our arithmetic for the five-or-more figure).
Service support counts with an older machine. The same 2023 count found 20 commercial and industrial machinery and equipment repair and maintenance establishments in the county (NAICS 811310), 11 of them with fewer than five employees.
Equipment loan for the machine, term loan for install and tooling
The machine is the collateral, which is why equipment financing fits it. Tooling, rigging and the power run are harder to resell on their own, so they can go on a term loan with its own schedule.
| Cost | Amount | Route |
|---|---|---|
| CNC press brake, 10-foot bed | $118,000 | Equipment financing |
| Tooling package: punches, dies and holders | $14,500 | Term loan |
| Rigging, setting and anchoring | $6,800 | Term loan |
| Power run and disconnect from the panel | $9,200 | Term loan |
| Operator training at the shop | $3,500 | Term loan |
Illustration only, invented figures: a 9.25% annual rate on the $118,000 machine produces 60 monthly payments of $2,463.83, totaling $147,829.80. Tooling and supplier setup cost $34,000; at an invented 10.5% annual rate over 36 months, its installment is $1,105.08 and its total is $39,782.88. The shorter term clears the install cost while the machine is still being paid off.
The machine being replaced can help too. When the dealer takes it in trade, the credit shows on the quote and lowers the amount financed; when the shop sells it on its own, the sale price can go toward the install lines. Either way, the request should say what happens to the old machine, since an earlier lender may still hold a lien on it.
Steel purchases before a big order ships
A large order strains cash before it earns anything. Steel is bought up front, the parts take weeks to build, and the customer pays on terms after delivery. A forecast of that gap tells the shop how much working capital to arrange, if any.
| Cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| Steel plate and tube | $31,200 |
| Wire, gas and abrasives | $2,900 |
| Outside powder coating | $5,600 |
| Material and outside work, total | $39,700 |
Illustration only, invented figures: with 21 days of production and net 45 terms after shipping, 66 days pass between buying steel and collecting. A shop with $14,600 per biweekly payroll meets 4 or 5 paydays in that stretch, so $58,400 to $73,000 of wages go out on top of the $39,700 in material and outside work.
A deposit shrinks the gap. In the same invented order, a 30% deposit brings in $28,800, which covers all but $2,400 of the steel. The rest of the gap is what a funding request would need to carry.
Purchase orders and customer contracts in the file
An order-backed request is clearer when the order itself is in the file. Which of these papers a partner wants differs from one partner to the next; this list covers the order side:
- The signed purchase order, with quantities, unit price, delivery dates and payment terms
- Any master supply agreement or blanket order behind the purchase order
- An accounts receivable aging report showing how this customer has paid before
- Welding or quality certifications the customer contract calls for
- The machine quote and the install quotes from the rigger and the electrician
- Bank statements for the last few months, plus last year's financial statements
Repeat orders from the same customer show the machine has work waiting for it. The manufacturing page sets out county figures by subsector. In the 2024 Nonemployer Statistics, 19 fabricated metal businesses in the county had no paid employees (NAICS 332), and the 2023 ZIP-level count put 12 employer establishments in this code in ZIP 17042.
By Southbrook Business Capital · Updated
