Modfloor Founder Launches STEELFAST to Solve Modular's Production Bottleneck

John Davis — the entrepreneur behind CadSteel and prefabAUS member Modfloor — has launched STEELFAST, a new venture bringing purpose-built rollforming machinery and integrated design services to the modular construction industry.

Davis spent three decades at the forefront of light-gauge steel construction, founding CadSteel in the 1990s and introducing cold-formed steel framing technology to both New Zealand and the United States. That experience revealed a persistent industry problem: modular builders investing in rollforming machinery couldn't translate house designs into machine-ready files."There are virtually no detailers around," says Davis. "Modular builders invest in rollforming machinery but can't translate house designs into files the machine can run.

We've solved that by building the detailing capability into the STEELFAST offering."The flagship SFT300 is a fully automatic machine for light-gauge steel chassis production, capable of increasing capacity by up to 500%. It switches between profiles in under two minutes and handles material from 1.0mm to 2.5mm across multiple widths. A crew of three can produce four to five 14-metre chassis per day — and for builders currently shipping chassis interstate, the payback period is under a year.

Complementing the SFT300, the FST90 and FST150 rollformers produce wall and truss framing for modular and traditional construction, with the FST150 addressing growing demand for 150mm framing to meet 7-star NatHERS ratings.STEELFAST has partnered with Your Workshop — a 60-strong team of architects, engineers, BIM coordinators, and detailers — giving machinery purchasers access to centralised detailing, council approvals, and an online steel ordering system."We've spent 30 years learning what works," says Davis. "Now we're making that knowledge available to every modular builder."