Research Progress and Prospect on Profile Roll Forming Methods and Equipment

In recent years, with the development of aerospace, automotive, rolling stock, shipbuilding, military weapons and other industries, the demand for bent and rolled parts is increasing, and the requirements for roll forming accuracy are growing. With the rapid development of coal power, hydropower, nuclear power, wind power, and petrochemical industries, the design and research on roll bending machine and the profile roll forming methods have come into focus. The purpose of this study is to summarize the classification and characteristics of roll bending equipment, analyze the reasons that affect the accuracy of profile bending, and propose specific solutions. This paper summarizes the research status and patents on the existing roll bending equipment, introduces its structural characteristics, differences, and molding effects, and focuses on the difficulties, optimization, and improvement methods of roll bending molding. In this paper, the mechanical structures of the existing roll forming equipment have been analyzed and compared, the effects of different roll forming equipment on the profile bending results have been determined, and the reasons affecting the bending accuracy have been pointed out. By summarizing the patents and research on profile roll forming methods and equipment, the current situation and future research prospects of roll forming equipment are discussed. The roll forming equipment is divided into a roll bending machine, a CNC roll bending machine, and a flexible roll bending machine. Each design can meet different profile processing needs. From the design point of view, the optimization under the given processing profile can achieve relatively high processing accuracy. However, the processing of different profiles will still produce geometric defects, and there is some space for improvement in the structure of roll forming equipment, the materials of processing rollers, and the NC interactive system. Thus, further research on profile roll forming is needed in the future.