Development of Profile Design Method Based on Longitudinal Strain for Flexible Roll Forming Process

The use of roll-formed products increases every year due to its advantages, such as high production rates, reduced tooling cost and improved quality. However, till now, it is limited to part profiles with constant cross section. In recent years, the flexible roll forming process, which allows variable cross sections of profiles by adaptive roll stands, was developed. In this study, an attempt to optimize profile design for the flexible roll forming process was performed. An equation that predicts the longitudinal strain for part geometries with variable cross-sections was proposed. The relationship between geometrical parameters and the longitudinal strain was analyzed and investigations on the optimal profile design were performed. Experiments were conducted with a lab-scale roll forming machine to validate the proposed equation. The results show that the profile design method proposed in this study is feasible and parts with variable cross sections can be successfully fabricated with the flexible roll forming process.