Customized Profile Roll Forming Machines

When the section is the project

Most roll forming buyers start with a product they already sell: gutter, stud, purlin. A customized profile starts the other way round. The section exists first, usually because a customer, a code or a local standard demanded it, and the machine has to be designed around that shape. This page is the catalogue of the shapes we have already built lines for, but it is not the limit of what we can form.

What makes a custom line different is not the frame or the drive. It is the roll design. Every bend in the section is a decision about springback, and every springback decision costs you a stand, a gap or a tolerance. A drawing that looks simple on paper can need four more stands than the buyer expected, which is why we check the section before we quote it.

Four numbers that set the machine

The first is the number of bends. Each bend normally needs one stand, and tight radii or thick material add more. The second is the heaviest gauge you will run, because gauge sets the shaft diameter: a 75 mm shaft at 2.0 mm is comfortable, and the same shaft at 4.5 mm deflects. The third is the coil width, because it sets the decoiler, the leveler and the frame width. The fourth is the tolerance band your customer inspects against, because a forming line held to plus or minus 0.1 mm is a different machine from one held to plus or minus 0.5 mm.

Everything else, speed included, follows those four. If a supplier quotes you a speed before asking about the section, the quote is a guess.

Guardrail, barrier and post: the heaviest family here

Highway guardrail is the family that shows why gauge matters. W-beam runs 2.67 to 4.5 mm, panels are about 310 mm high and 3,810 or 4,000 mm long, and the steel grade sits between 345 and 550 MPa. Three corrugation Thrie-beam is deeper again, around 506 mm. Holes have to be punched before forming, because a hole punched after forming distorts the corrugation around it.

Posts are a separate line. A post is a simpler section but a heavier one, so the line runs 14 forming stages on a 110 mm shaft with a 37 kW motor, and the hydraulic punch sits before the forming section. Crash barrier lines are usually specified at 3.2 mm and 13 stations, at 5 to 10 m/min once punching and cutting time is included.

Silo panels, greenhouse sections and steel studs

Grain bin and silo panels are wide and thin by comparison: 1.0 to 2.0 mm coil up to 1,250 mm wide, 18 to 20 stations, and a gantry pre-cutting device because a panel has to leave the line at an exact developed length. The corrugation depth sets the number of stands more than the gauge does.

Greenhouse profiles are a family rather than one section: angles, channels and cold formed shapes that stiffen a glazing system. Lines run 16 to 30 stands at 15 to 20 m/min, and the reason to buy one is variety, so cassettes or adjustable spacing matter more than top speed.

Steel stud and track is the volume product in this group. A 16 station line at 15 m/min with a 7.5 kW motor will supply a drywall plant, and the profile is simple enough that changeover between widths is mostly a matter of roll spacing and cut off length rather than new tooling.

Handling, embossing and the pieces a line cannot make

Two machines on this page are not forming machines at all. The auto stacker sits at the end of the line and takes finished C, U and strut profiles off the run out table, so one operator can run the line instead of two. The double crank press covers the brackets, plates and connectors that a roll former cannot produce in line, from 110 to 315 tonnes.

Embossing is the odd one out in a different way. It presses a straight or parallel pattern into sheet from 0.2 to 5.0 mm, with roller faces from 1,000 to 2,000 mm wide, and it can run inline with a forming line or as a standalone unit. For panels where the pattern is the product, the embosser is the machine and the former is the support act.

Specifications at a glance

How to specify a custom line

Send the section drawing with every bend and the fold or lock geometry, because that fixes the stand count. State the material and coating you will actually buy, because galvanized, pre painted and pickled strip form differently and mark differently. Give the full gauge range, not the nominal one. List every profile the line must cover, because that decides whether you need cassettes or a second roll set. Add the punch pattern, since hinge, bolt and slot positions are tooling. And tell us the output you need per shift, because that decides the decoiler, the cut off and whether a stacker belongs in the quote.

If the section is still at concept stage, our guide to choosing, operating and maintaining a roll forming machine covers the decisions from a wider angle. To work out how many metres a coil yields before you commit to a tonnage, the metal coil calculator does the arithmetic.

Frequently asked questions