What is Roll Forming?
Roll forming is a process that uses a set of precisely placed rollers to perform incremental bending to a continuously fed strip of metal. The rollers are mounted in sets on a consecutive stand with each roller completing one small step of the process.
Rollers are carefully crafted using a flower pattern, which identifies the sequential changes to the metal strip. The shape of each roller is created from the individual sections of the flower pattern.
Each of the colors in the above flower pattern illustrates one of the incremental bends used to complete the part. The individual colors are a single bending operation. CAD or CAM renderings are used to simulate the roll forming process so that errors or flaws can be prevented prior to production. Using software applications, engineers can select calibrations and profiles for folding or bending angles to create new geometries by clicking their mouse.
