Roll forms: Advantages & Facts

Roll forming is a process that forms a continuous metal strip with roller dies into a desired shape. Roll formed parts can have a variety of shapes, angles, and curves. Roll forming can be used to form all kinds of ferrous and nonferrous metals. The ability to roll form different types of metals allows the end manufacturer multiple options to design products that best fit specific needs.

The roll forming process is somewhat flexible. Certain design changes may strengthen and improve the functionality of your roll formed parts. Roll forming allows numerous other processes to be performed while the material is being formed. We can eliminate multi-secondary work with our in-line capabilities. These roll forming advantages allows International Rollforms to produce many parts that would not be possible in other manufacturing operations. Below are examples of cost effective conversations from other processes that International Rollforms has performed.

Stamping to Roll form:

A metal stamping that required 3 operations using 3 presses and 3 operators producing 250 parts per hour was converted to a roll formed part employing 1 operator producing 50 parts per minute.

Extrusion to Roll form:

A costly aluminum extrusion requiring slow secondary punching that could not meet demand was converted to a pre-punch roll formed part using hot dipped galvanized steel. Increased part strength was obtained while costs were reduced by more than half.

Roll forming offers a number of distinct advantages over other metal fabricating methods. Advantages include:

• The initial cost of a roll forming line is no more, and often less, than the cost of a standard stamping line or progressive die operation.
• Production speeds of 50-600 feet per minute can be attained but 100-180 feet per minute is a reasonable average for most current equipment.
• Roll forming is a high volume process that makes uniform and accurately dimensioned parts.
• Parts are produced with little handling, minimizing labor costs, needing only the coils to be loaded at the starting end of the machine and removal of finished parts at the other end. This process can usually be handled with a minimal number of operators.
• Roll forming can also be used for low-volume production because setup or changeover time for new parts is not lengthy.
• Maintenance costs are generally low. The form rolls can produce several million feet of product before problems occur when properly maintained.
• The roll forming process is easily combined with other operations and processes to automatically form a considerable range of metal parts.

Another advantage of rollforming is that the same rollforming machinery can be used to produce a wide variety of cross section profiles. Each different profile requires a specially designed set of rolls. The fundamental roll design resembles a flower - i.e. a sequence of profile cross sections (one for each set of rolls). Because rollforming is an exact operation and involves high machinery costs, computer simulation is used in order to validate the design of the roll stands to make sure that the metal product won't be stressed unduly, and also to minimize the total number of rolls required. Examples of rollformed applications include automobile chassis sections, window guides, and impact bars. These can be prepunched, then rollformed, midpierced inline, rollformed some more, and then welded and cut off in one continuous operation.

International Rollforms uses many different materials in our metal roll forming process to manufacture a wide variety of roll formed parts and shapes. Most metals can be roll formed. Complex roll form parts and shapes can be made from basic cold roll steel to pre-coated material to vinyl-laminated material with little complication.

Coated, uncoated, ferrous, nonferrous, in mild to ultra-high strength steels from .005 stainless steel 1/4 hard, to electrolytic tough pitch full hard copper, to 70/30 brass to carbon steel 7 ga. high strength/low allow 60 ksi min. yield to martensitic steel 160 ksi min. yield.

As in pipe and tube mills, rollforming can be used with practically all metals, nonferrous as well as ferrous. Coils of stainless steel, high strength and low alloy steel, martensitic steel, as well as aluminum can be rollformed. It is possible to emboss coils of aluminum or steel with finishes that simulate wood grain (e.g. for garage doors). When using embossed metals the roller dies must be adjusted so as not to roll out the embossment. Prepainted and vinyl laminated sheets can also be rollformed but not welded. Rollforming is a process of great versatility which permits innovative design. Setting a rollforming system up requires a skilled rollform engineer's expertise, as well as considerable collaboration between the manufacturer and the vendor in order to develop a successful product.