State of the Art: Prototyping of the Roll Bending Machine

Abstract

This paper focuses on the development of a new type of roll bending machine. Our primary aim was to build a machine that could form ultra-high-strength steels (UHS) with smaller inner radii than those achieved by traditional bending methods. One of the main planning principles was modular construction, so a length of a bending line could be easily selected or changed later by the user without major changes to the basic construction of the machine. In contrast, in traditional roll forming, the blank does not move during the forming process, so the accuracy of the profile can be better controlled. Different kinds of cut to size-open profiles can be produced by this machine, which utilizes and combines bending and rolling techniques. In the initial stages of the project, the needs of smaller companies that do short-run productions are taken into account. First, the prototype is designed mainly for research use; moreover, it is important that the properties of the machine are multifunctional. In addition, forming can be done in several ways by this machine. In this paper, there is shown creation of a machine, designing of construction and manufacturing steps of the whole machine including assembling. Also detailed description of the various functional components and the operating principle is presented. The results of the forming tests are also presented.