Contour Roll Forming (also known as roll forming or cold roll forming) is a continuous process for forming metal from sheet, strip, or coiled stock into desired shapes by feeding the stock through a series of roll stations equipped with contoured rolls called roller dies. Most contour roll forming is done by working the stock progressively in two or more stations until the finished shape is produced.
The variable parameters in a roll forming operation include power requirement, forming speed and type of lubricant. These parameters are determined by width, thickness, and type of material, complexity of the cross section to be formed and accuracy required.
The power required by a roll forming machine depends on the torque loss through the drive gearing and the friction between the material and the rolls as the material is being formed.
Forming speed can vary from 0.5 to 245 m/min and it can be influenced by one or more of the following factors:
Composition of the work metal
Yield strength of the work metal
Thickness of the work metal
Severity of the forming operation
Cutting of finished shapes to length
Number of roll stations
Required auxiliary operations
Use of lubricant
Despite the fact that lubrication is helpful and often necessary in contour rolling, application and subsequent removal of lubricants are significant cost items. When roll forming steel, however, the selection of hot-rolled, pickled, and oiled grades of work metal has often eliminated the need for an additional lubricant.
The parameters which can influence the roll forming process are multiple and the technological process is even more complicated for roll formed tapered structures.
Without powerful numerical simulation and 3D modeling tools is very hard to understand and to predict this complicated technological process.
Valmont Coast Engineering Group is an industry leader in research, design and building roll forming machines for straight or tapered, multisided tubular structures.
Algors state of the art Accupack module was used to numerically simulate this complex nonlinear process.
Algor software was employed to simulate the roll forming process considering the friction between the dies and the plate, the material spring-back coefficient, calculating the reaction forces in the bearing, modeling the dies to obtain the desired final shape. The Algor program helped WCE also to optimize the distance between stations, the speed of the roll forming process and to reduce the roll-formers noise level.
For more details regarding this specific project please contact our engineering team.
