Equipment built for the field, the barn, the mine and the job site. DeWys Engineering provides agricultural equipment design and heavy equipment design for West Michigan equipment builders, fabricators and growers: track systems, orchard sprayers, dairy equipment, packing line conveyors, construction and off-road equipment, sand mining equipment and custom hydraulics.
We design the weldments, sheet metal, hydraulics and drivetrains that have to survive mud, weight and long seasons, and we check the critical structures with FEA. You get a complete print package and bill of materials your fabrication shop or builder can work from. If you already have equipment that needs a redesign, we can start from what you have.
Who We Design Equipment For
- Equipment manufacturers who need more engineering capacity, or want an outside team to redesign a product line for higher loads and modern manufacturing.
- Fabrication shops that build custom equipment for farms and job sites and need someone to engineer it before they cut steel.
- Growers and operators with an idea for a machine that doesn’t exist yet. We design it and work with a fabrication partner to get it built.
Agricultural Equipment Design Projects
Track Systems for Combines, Sprayers and Trucks
We have worked with GripTrac in Ravenna, Michigan, for years. GripTrac started out building steel combine tracks and moved into rubber tracks over time. We converted their old 2D prints and cardboard templates into 3D SolidWorks models, and each time combines got bigger and heavier, we redesigned the track frames to carry the extra load, running FEA on the new frames. GripTrac then builds prototypes and puts them on local farms through planting and harvest to prove them out in the field.
The same engineering goes into GripTrac’s truck track systems, which run on oilfield service vehicles in the far north and on the tour buses that carry visitors through Yellowstone National Park in winter, when the park roads aren’t plowed. We also 3D scanned a RoGator sprayer and designed a GripTrac track system for it, from scan to test drive.
Orchard Sprayers for Fruit Growers
Precise Manufacturing in Casnovia, Michigan, builds specialty equipment for West Michigan fruit growers. We helped them develop an orchard sprayer for apples, designing the weldments, the sheet metal fan housings and the layout of the mechanical systems. For one version, we designed the gearing and drivetrain that fold the upper section down for transport.
Dairy Equipment: Silage Defacer and Sand Bedding Hauler
Bakker Metal Fabrication in Coopersville builds custom equipment for dairy operations. For a West Michigan dairy, we designed a silage defacer attachment for a telehandler and a high-capacity sand hauler for bedding the barns. The hauler’s high-speed belt and hydraulic tilt mechanism lay sand down in precise strips in the stalls.
Apple Packing Line Conveyors
For a large West Michigan apple grower, we have designed conveyor equipment for their packing shed over the years, including stainless steel conveyor weldments like this 90-degree turn in the packing line.
Heavy Equipment Design Projects
Truss Stacking Equipment
Van Hydraulics in Conklin, Michigan, builds truss equipment for truss manufacturers. We designed a truss stacker that takes each finished truss as it comes off the line, tips it up to roughly 70 degrees and adds it to a standing stack. The manufacturer then picks up the whole stack with a heavy-lift forklift, bands it, and sets it in the yard or loads it straight onto a truck.
Custom Hydraulic Cylinders and Valves
The truss stacker brings together years of work with Van Hydraulics. We have designed and reverse engineered custom hydraulic cylinders and control valves with them for a wide range of heavy equipment and agricultural applications.
Sand Mining Conveyors and Screen Decks
MHK Equipment Services in Grant, Michigan, wanted to modernize two existing machines for sand mining: a folding stacker conveyor and a vibrating screen deck. We started from their current equipment and re-engineered both for the changes they wanted, for modern manufacturing methods, and updated them to accommodate modern controls. MHK built both machines from our complete print packages and bills of materials.
Construction and Off-Road Equipment
We have designed a lot of construction and off-road equipment for manufacturers, much of it under NDA, so it doesn’t appear here. The work is the same as our agricultural projects: heavy weldments and structures, hydraulic systems, attachments and redesigns of existing machines for higher loads and modern manufacturing. If you have a project you need kept confidential, we’re glad to sign an NDA before we talk details.
Agricultural and Heavy Equipment We Design
- Crop and orchard equipment: orchard sprayers, sapling planters, fertilizer equipment for row crops
- Tracks and undercarriages: track systems for combines, sprayers and trucks
- Dairy and livestock: silage defacers, sand bedding equipment, telehandler and loader attachments
- Produce handling: packing line conveyors, washing equipment, bin and gaylord handling
- Construction and off-road: equipment frames and structures, attachments, hydraulic systems
- Aggregate and sand mining: stacker conveyors, screen decks and structures
- Wood products: truss stacking and lumber handling equipment
- Components: custom hydraulic cylinders and valves, gearing, drivetrains and folding mechanisms, heavy weldments and sheet metal
How We Work
- Start from your idea or your equipment. A sketch, a worn-out machine or a product line that needs to carry more load.
- Capture what exists. We 3D scan existing equipment, parts and templates when there are no usable drawings.
- Design and validate. We model the machine in SolidWorks and run FEA on critical frames and structures.
- Release a build package. Complete 2D prints and bills of materials for your shop or fabrication partner.
- Support the build and field testing. We answer questions, handle redlines and update the design as prototypes come back from the field.
Related Services
- 3D scanning & reverse engineering: capturing existing parts and assemblies as editable CAD
- Sheet metal & weldment design: fabrication-ready enclosures, frames and structural weldments
- Custom automated machine design: robot cells, assembly machines, nests and end-of-arm tooling
DeWys Engineering is part of Gambit Works. We’re ISO 9001:2015 certified and ITAR registered.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you build the equipment you design?
No. We design it and deliver complete prints and bills of materials. Your shop or one of our fabrication partners builds it.
Can you redesign equipment we already have, with no drawings?
Yes. We 3D scan the existing machine, parts or templates and rebuild the design in SolidWorks, then improve it for higher loads, modern manufacturing or new features.
Do you run FEA on equipment designs?
Yes. We run FEA on critical frames and structures, and we support field testing of prototypes before production.
Will you sign an NDA?
Yes. Much of our equipment design work is confidential, and we routinely sign NDAs before a project starts.
Where are your customers?
Most are in West Michigan, but we design equipment for customers across North America.
Start Your Equipment Design Project
Tell us what the equipment needs to do and what you have to start from. Call 616-604-1977, email [email protected], or use our contact form.