Roll forming news
Roll forming is a high-speed production process that converts a flat strip of metal into a finished or semi-finished shape that is a channel, an angle, a tube, or a ring, etc.
Roll forming typically competes with braking and extruding at lower volumes. Roll form tooling is generally the most expensive tooling relative to these competing processes, but the difference in tooling cost becomes moot as the volume increases because the difference in per unit cost among these processes decreases at an increasing rate.
This is not the only difference, however. Compared to brake forming, roll forming can produce more parts with greater uniformity and consistency throughout the length of the part. Roll forming also eliminates multiple stage operations, trim scrap, and slitting burrs.
The same is true of the comparison between roll forming and aluminum extruding. Other advantages of roll forming relative to extrusion methods include: practically all metals can be roll formed, not just aluminum. Also, roll forming can eliminate secondary operations - multiple stage operations such as notching, punching, and post-painting - by combining in the roll forming process. Pre-painted steel can be substituted for post-painting methods and the metal can be perforated prior to roll forming or, if the hole pattern is close to the beginning or end of the part, the formed part can be perforated in the cut-off die. The ability to fabricate decorative parts from pre-coated, pre-painted, or pre-plated metal is a distinct feature of roll forming.
