Roll forming is a cost effective and fast way to make shaped metal parts from aluminum, steel, stainless steel, and many other metals. You’ll find roll formed parts in the bleachers at the football stadium, on trucks delivering goods across the country, on the tops of buildings holding up solar panels, and many other places. If you’re looking into roll forming a part for your product, here are just a handful of things to consider.
1. Cost of Tooling – One of the biggest costs when setting up a part for roll forming is the up front cost of tooling. From the rollers themselves to the cut-off dies, punches, and presses, the tooling to make an exact part can get expensive. To help mitigate this, Roller Die + Forming has a library of standard tooling that we’ve developed over the last 60 years. This in-house tooling can be used as part or all of the tooling for a specific piece, depending on the complexity and uniqueness of a particular part. You can browse our Standard Tooling Library to view our parts and reach out to our sales team for a quote using a specific set of tooling.
2. Experienced Engineering Design – When designing for roll forming, there’s a little bit of art that goes into the mix, knowing exactly how many rollers it will take to get the metal to hold a certain shape. Keeping the part within the customer’s tolerance is only part of what our engineering department does well. They’re also experts at leveraging our in-house tooling library to help cut customer costs and they keep an eye on the state of the tools to ensure maintenance is performed in our in-house tool-room in a timely fashion.
3. In-Line Services – As parts are running through our lines, it is often cost-effective to add other process into the line as well. This could include punching holes, stamping or pressing the parts, bending the part into a particular shape, and cutting a shape into many different lengths. Rather than setting up another process in your facility to further process your parts, take advantage of the different capabilities we offer at Roller Die + Forming to create a complete component.
4. Painting, Welding, & Assembly – Just like we can perform numerous services in-line, we also have the in-house capabilities to perform additional operations to roll formed parts. From powder-coating metal to welding parts together, we can move you part closer towards final assembly. Our engineering staff can work with you to look at how your part will be used in the finished project and help you find the most cost-effective use of our resources.
5. Just in Time Delivery – Whether you’re making automotive parts, truck parts, solar panel racks, or storage racks, getting a quantity of parts delivered exactly when your manufacturing process needs them helps you control costs associated with inventory. Roller Die + Forming’s plant locations in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, and Mexico can offer just in time delivery to our customers to let them take advantage of purchasing discounts associated with higher volume material and parts orders while still receiving a smaller amount of parts when needed.
Roll forming parts has numerous advantages, especially if you’re rolling 5,000 feet or more of a particular shape. If you’re interested in learning more about roll forming and how we can help you make your parts efficiently, reach out to our experienced sales team.
