Roll Form Tooling: Accessories and Orientation

The importance of proper roll design, materials, and manufacture cannot be emphasized enough. To help ensure success in roll forming, you and your team should have a basic knowledge of the elements of roll design and how machines work to create different cross sections. In this post, we'll discuss roll form accessory tooling and orientation, two of the most important elements of roll design.

Accessory Tooling

It is sometimes necessary to mount rolls on vertical axes, between driven roll stages, to exert side pressure to a shape when it is need for forming or guiding. Likewise, when cut-to-length strips are fed through a roll forming machine, interstage guiding devices are used to guide the lead end in its progression from roll to roll. These items, together with straightening guides or rolls, are considered accessory tooling and are mounted on standard fixtures available from all manufacturers for the purpose.

Roll Form Tooling Orientation

Shape orientation, its position relative to the roll axis, is to be considered as an important element of roll design. It can affect machine cost, tool cost, part quality and also the overall efficiency of the operation. A particular orientation may receive preference because of:

1. The limitations of the forming machine as to the number of roll stages and roll diameter.
2. The limitations of the cutoff machine as to the die space and stroke.
3. A desire to retain the finished or exposed surface of the section in a position visible to the operator as it is being formed.
4. A desire to position the cutoff burr in a particular direction.
5. A desire to tool similar sections in “combination” or “sectioned” rolls.
6. A desire to minimize, control or eliminate:
   1. Scratching and galling
   2. Blind bends
   3. Trapped coolant
   4. Springback 
7. The requirement of other in-line operations, e.g., coiling, prepunching, postpunching.
8. Tool cost economies or ease of setup and operation.
9. The need to position a laminated section most conveniently for the application of the core of cover strips involved.