Formtek, Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio, a member of the Formtek Group, has been working to improve roll forming accessory products for the North American marketplace. One such accessory is the idle side pass.
For years, idle side passes, used in roll forming systems, have been difficult to operate because the opposing rolls have had no reference to each other in space. The operator was forced to use feeler gauges or other measuring equipment to get exact setups–with such equipment always taking time to find and set up.
Formtek’s latest design, which will be standard across all size platforms on roll forming applications, will utilize mechanical digital counters for both lateral-roll locations as well as the height location. This will ultimately help the operator to go back to a reference number for setups of multiple products more reliably and with less time, saving money due to scrap loss.
(Figure 1) Photo of the Yoder Idler Stand
(Figure 2) Photo of a Yoder Idler Stand