Straight roll formed profiles through partial rolling.

Roll forming is a sheet-metal forming operation that incrementally forms a flat sheet into a desired profile by successively arranged rolls. Due to the process-related longitudinal strains, profile defects such as vertical and horizontal bow and twist occur. In this paper, a new straightening method is investigated that homogenizes the longitudinal strain distribution to eliminate profile defects by partial rolling. An experimental implementation of partial rolling for an asymmetrical hat-profile proves the feasibility of the method. This method is compared numerically with conventional methods which show that profiles can be straightened more efficiently with the help of partial rolling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]