Flexible Roll Forming Systems by Jack Pennuto Jr., Director of Sales & Marketing, Formtek, Inc.

With the increased emphasis on small batch or single piece production, to meet order fulfillment on the fly, some manufacturing processes, particularly roll forming, have struggled to respond to this new, dynamic environment.  Due to the long setup times that can be required when switching between roll formed profiles, it is common for manufactures to run a customer order in conjunction with an amount of inventory, to cover projected needs of the product for the coming weeks or months.  This is a common way to rationalize the setup cost of the machine, which can take a couple hours or up to a few days, depending on the complexity of forming the product.  Doing this with each changeover of the machine, manufacturers can quickly end up with a significant amount of finished goods inventory, and although based on historical sales and product usage, short term changes in the mix of business or other environmental factors, ie. new industry codes or certifications deeming a product obsolete, can stretch the turnover of the inventory, and likewise the liquidation of the product into revenue, to much longer than intended.

Formtek has tackled this roll forming challenge by removing the obstacles that result in long changeover times.  The Supermill® roll forming machine offers a patented gauge adjustment technology, for uniform compensation of tooling gaps in the horizontal and vertical planes, insuring profile dimension consistency across a range of material thicknesses, and without the need for an operator to perform manual adjustments.  The machine can be designed with multiple forming zones, to enable discrete adjustment of unique features, such as profile height, width, leg length, etc., even switching from an inside bend (C-Channel) to an outside bend (Hat Channel).  Finally, a programmable entry guide, coupled with short horizontal centers, precision bearings and roll tooling work together to form traditionally coilfed products in a precut arrangement.  This last feature removes the rethreading of different coil sizes when changing products, and enables the use of common fabrication tools, ie. turret press, laser or cut-to-length equipment, to create the notched, tailored blanks to be formed.  The end result is that the supermill® system can produce a one piece roll formed order, without production of extra, finished inventory, and the changeover times are as little as fifteen seconds.

The system is equipped with motorized, programmable adjustment, so the operator can select the profile to be run, by choosing from the included part master database, scanning a barcode from the incoming material, queuing production from a network or input the profile dimensions on the operator’s touchscreen.  All feature dimensions, as well as over-bending, flare compensation, and material thickness can be stored and adjusted by the main touchscreen control.  The system can be supplied with an entry feed conveyor, for coupling with an upstream coil processing system or as a stand alone machine, to feed it discretely from existing fabricating equipment.  

Supermill® systems such as this have been supplied for a variety of applications in the construction, fenestration, furniture, lighting, and mechanical component markets.  For more information contact dahlstrom@formtekgroup.com or call (216) 292-6300, or visit www.dahlstromusa.com.