Roll Forming Machine and Its Development

1. What is roll forming?

Roll forming machine is a plastic processing machine which uses multiple passes of sub forming rolls arranged in sequence to bend the coil, strip and other metal sheet strips continuously to make specific section.

2. The advantages of roll forming machine

The roll forming machine is high-efficiency machinery that uses the new technology of material saving and energy saving. And by using this machine, not only can we produce high-quality steel products, but also can shorten the product development cycle, improve production efficiency, and improve the market competitiveness of the enterprises.

3. The application of roll forming machine

In the past half-century, the roll forming machine has developed into the most effective metal forming equipment. In North America, 35% ~ 45% of the rolled strip steel is processed by roll forming machine, which is more than the steel used in the automobile industry.

In recent years, as an important structural part, roll-formed steel products have been widely used in many fields, such as construction, automobile manufacturing, shipbuilding, electronic industry and machinery manufacturing. Its products range from ordinary rails, doors and windows and other structural parts to some special profiles for special purposes. The section performance of roll-formed section steel per unit weight is better than that of hot-rolled section steel, and it has a high surface finish and dimensional accuracy. Therefore, roll-formed section steel instead of hot-rolled section steel can achieve the dual effect of saving steel and energy, so people attach great importance to the development of roll-formed section steel. It is the continuous desire of users for the varieties, specifications and quality of roll-formed steel products that promotes the rapid development of roll forming machine and cold-formed technology.

4. The development of the roll forming machine

Roll forming technology has a history of more than 100 years, which is roughly divided into three stages.

The first stage (1838-1909) is the stage of exploration and trial production. In this stage, the research work of roll forming theory and cold-formed steel is slow. With the rapid development of industrial transportation, the cold-formed steel produced by roll forming machine can not meet the requirements of users.

The second stage (1910-1959) is the establishment and gradual promotion of roll forming machine.

The third stage (from 1960-2021) is the rapid development stage of the roll forming machine.

The development trend of roll forming machine and cold-formed steel production can be summarized as follows:

(1) Increasing output

Since the 1960s, the output of cold-formed steel has increased rapidly, which is the general trend. According to the statistics of cold-formed steel in various countries over the years, the output of cold-formed steel and the output of steel is relatively stable in a certain proportion. With the improvement of the roll forming machine production process, the product specifications and varieties are increasing, the product quality is improving, and the application scope is expanding.

(2) Deepening research

The research on the theory, process and equipment of roll forming is in-depth, and a series of progress has been made in the practical application of roll forming machine and cold-formed steel.

(3) Emerging new technologies

After decades of improvement and perfection, the roll forming machine is becoming more and more mature. With the increasing recognition of the technical and economic effect of cold-formed steel in practical application, cold-formed steel is widely used in various fields of the national economy. The customers have more strict requirements on the quality of cold-formed steel, and the varieties and specifications are required to be diversified so that the cold roll forming machine is constantly improved to meet the requirements of users.

(4) Increasing product variety

With the development of cold-formed steel production and the expansion of its application scope, the varieties of cold-formed steel are increasing, the product structure is constantly updated, and the product standards are gradually improved.