Rolling machine diagram. How to make homemade rollers for a profile pipe? Making sheet bending rollers with your own hands

A rolling machine (rolling machine, rollers) is a universal equipment used in the construction and repair industry for bending various metals.

1 Why are rolling units needed and what are they?

Such machines are used in any modern enterprise for the production of conical, oval and cylindrical products from sheet metal. The procedure for manufacturing such structures is called rolling. It makes it possible to obtain any pipes, blanks for subsequent stamping, and a variety of finished metal products.

Simple rolling equipment is also used in everyday life when you need to make gutters, chimneys, pipes, air ducts, and other products for roofing and construction work with your own hands. Modern rolling machines allow you to work with almost any metal. They bend sheets made of alloy and carbon alloys, aluminum, and cast iron without any problems.

There are also models of rolling equipment that work with polycarbonate blanks.

All the sheet metal bending units we describe are divided into the following groups:

manual;
electromechanical;
hydraulic.

The manual machine can be mounted on a stand (floor-standing) or on a workbench (desktop). It does not have a mechanical drive, so it requires the use of muscle force to perform work on it. Manual machines are very easy to use. Their elementary design ensures high reliability of equipment operation over a long period of time.

Hand rollers are designed to produce pipes and other sheet metal products up to 1.5–2 millimeters thick. They are light and compact, which allows them to be carried and used directly at the site of certain work (roofing, repairs). And most importantly, they do not need electricity. In terms of price, a tabletop and floor-mounted manual unit is always preferable to an electromechanical one.

Machines with an electric motor equipped with a gearbox are more efficient in operation. They facilitate and significantly speed up the pipe bending process. The electromechanical unit is installed permanently in the appropriate workshop of the enterprise and is used for processing metal up to 4 millimeters thick.

Hydraulic equipment belongs to the heavy class. It is used for the manufacture of pipes and other structures on an industrial scale at power engineering, shipbuilding and machine-building plants. In terms of its technical potential, a hydraulic machine is several times superior to electromechanical and manual ones. Hydraulics can produce pipes from metal sheets up to 8 millimeters thick. Hydraulic equipment is often equipped with program control.

2 A little about the design and operating principle of the machines

The main unit of the described machines is a cast bed. It is made from steel or cast iron. A special deformation mechanism consisting of several (3–4) rolls is mounted on the frame. Two rolls are stationary; rotation during operation is performed by the third and, if any, the fourth. The moving shafts can also move vertically.

The upper roll is fixed on the frame according to a scheme that makes it possible to quickly remove it if necessary or quickly adjust it for the production of pipes with different sections. Adjustment of this structural element is performed with a single wing-type screw. If there are grooves on the work rolls, they can be used to bend not only pipes, but also rods or thick wire. A manual machine for bending metal usually has three rolls, an electromechanical one - 3–4. But hydraulic units are always produced with four rolls.

The process of making pipes on any unit is truly simple:

first, a sheet of metal is clamped between the middle and outer shaft using a special handle on a machine;
then press the workpiece against them with a third roller;
they begin to manually rotate the rollers or start the electric motor.

Passing through the shafts at a certain speed, the metal bends at the desired angles. To make pipes or gutters of decent quality with your own hands, you can purchase a manual machine. By and large, there is no need to even buy one (although they are inexpensive), since you can assemble a homemade unit and use it effectively to perform small jobs. For information on how to do this, see the next section of the article.

3 A simple homemade unit for rolling metal

Anyone who sets himself a similar task can make such a machine with his own hands. We will very briefly describe from what materials and exactly how you can make a homemade unit. First you need to take a frame made of pipes or a curved profile that will serve as a frame.

Then we prepare a U-shaped profile (ideally, when the material for it is hardened steel) for the manufacture of a vertical support for our equipment. The deforming unit of the rolling machine is located in the open (upper) part of the profile. You can fix it using a clamp with a thread. The lower part of the U-profile is secured under the frame.

After this, we take the transmission chain, without which the roller device will not work, and mount it on the sprockets. Here it is important to tension the chain well and be sure to check the ease of its movement.

Then we install the feed handle and attach the entire mechanism to the frame using rolling bearings. You have made the simplest manual rolling machine with your own hands! It is advisable to provide in its design a special mechanism that allows you to adjust the gap between the shafts. Then you will be able to process metal of different thicknesses.

It is easy to make a more complex rolling mechanism with your own hands. There is now a lot of material on this issue on the Internet. Find a site with relevant information, look at the drawings of homemade installations and make your own equipment that is ideal for you.

4 Popular brands of hand looms

The modern market of metalworking equipment is able to satisfy any needs. Everyone can find the machine they need at a very reasonable price. It is easy to purchase an inexpensive compact installation for bending pipes with your own hands, and a professional floor-standing unit for a large production workshop or a modest private workshop.

The range of mechanical rolling machines with electric motors is no less impressive. The popular electromechanical roller machines are produced by the companies already mentioned, as well as by Russian factories. Let us describe several popular models of such equipment:

As you can see, the choice of rolling equipment is currently very good. You can easily purchase professional machines for use in production, and amateur units for domestic use.

Curved profile pipe is widely used in the construction of various structures. The curved profile gives the roof a streamlined shape, is aesthetically attractive when constructing arched structures and openings, and can withstand severe dynamic loads. Buying a profile of the required diameter is not a problem. It is impossible to give a straight metal profile pipe the desired bend without the use of special equipment.

You can bend the profile manually using a gas burner and applying physical force. But even for such a simple operation it is necessary to secure the pipe firmly, select a safe place for heating, and adjust the levers to apply force. It is even more difficult to make several symmetrically curved profiles.

This problem is solved using a special technique - rolling a profile pipe.

For the construction of metal structures, special pipes with a square or rectangular cross-section are used, which have increased strength to static load. Giving these pipes the required shape using a special machine is called rolling. The machine itself is called rollers (roller, pipe bender).

When people talk about pipe rolling on an industrial scale, this term refers to the operation of producing a profile pipe. The blank for obtaining the profile is a round welded pipe, which, by rolling on rollers, is converted into a pipe with a square or rectangular cross-section.

Rolling in production consists of the following operations:

Preparation of a pipe with a round cross-section from flat rolled metal - the sheet is rolled up and the connecting seam is welded.
A round pipe is pulled through a roller, deforming it and giving it a cross-section of specified dimensions.
Carry out quality control of the connecting seam of the resulting profile.
Additional rolling removes the residual stress of the metal after deformation.

Pay attention! The term “rolling” on an industrial scale has a broader meaning than just a radial change in the shape of the pipe.

A production roller or pipe bender is a machine consisting of 3 or five metal rollers, which are connected into a single mechanism by a drive chain. Such a machine is used in the pipe rolling industry, primarily for the manufacture of the profile itself.

One of the most used machines in metallurgical production is a rolling machine (rollers). Using a rolling machine, you can carefully bend a metal sheet or pipe, or give an oval shape to other metal products. In addition, such machines are widely used in the jewelry industry, as well as the food and chemical industries. Crushing and rolling mechanisms are used to produce flour, and in the chemical industry, refining and sheet-bending mechanisms are used. Rollers for a profile pipe can be made with your own hands at home according to pre-drawn drawings. Moreover, such a machine will practically not be inferior in its technical characteristics to products manufactured at the factory.

The working parts of a rolling machine are cylinders. Giving the required shape to the metal is carried out by rotating cylinders and passing metal between them. As a rule, rolling machines have from 2 to 5 shafts, but models with 3 or 4 shafts are the most popular and practical.

The 3rd shaft is responsible for giving the required shape to the metal, and the distance between the rear and upper shafts provides the radius of curvature of the workpiece. The product is stretched and reduced in cross section by passing between the shafts. This is ensured by a fairly high heating temperature, as well as by the pressure created by the shafts. To obtain a cylindrical shape from a workpiece, the rear and front shafts are adjusted in parallel; if a cone-shaped product is required, the rear shaft is positioned at a certain angle to the front one.

According to the bending methods, the following types are distinguished:

Crossbow. They specialize in processing pipes of a certain diameter;
Spring. They are characterized by the presence of a spring, which allows you to bend the plastic without deforming it or causing additional damage;
Segmental. Pipe deformation occurs under the influence of a certain segment;
Dornovye. They are mainly used for processing thin-walled pipes.

There are also stationary rolling mechanisms. Processing can be carried out at home. The main disadvantage of such mechanisms is extreme discomfort during operation, since such machines do not have fastenings and must be held with a free hand during operation.

Before creating a homemade rolling machine, it is necessary to understand that the dimensions of the mechanism significantly determine its final cost. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account in advance the dimensions of the parts that will most often have to be processed. Machines that are used on an industrial scale have shafts capable of bending pipes of various diameters at an angle of 180 degrees.

Applications

Most parts processed on rolling machines are cylindrical in shape. Therefore, their application is very diverse: drainpipes, chimneys and ventilation systems. Therefore, small homemade stationary rollers are very convenient to use directly at a construction site. In addition, self-made rollers do not damage the polymer coating of sheet metal.

Rolling mechanisms

The most common orders for the rolling mechanism operator are the production of drains and ventilation systems. These orders generally do not require a thick layer. Therefore, in this case, it is recommended to use rotary mechanisms that have a wide range of processed thickness of metal products: from 0.1 to 120 millimeters. Such devices also process plastic, ductile types of metals and rubber compounds.

Differences between common models

Machines that have 3 and 4 shafts differ from each other in the following parameters:

For three-roll models The sheet feed speed should not be higher than 5 meters per minute. They are also unable to process metal sheets thinner than 6 millimeters. Three-roll models do not have precise coordinates for the clamping point of the surface being machined, which makes it much more difficult to control the workpiece. But the advantages of such models include low cost.
Four roll machines They are highly reliable; due to good adhesion between the shafts, such machines provide increased safety during work (due to the impossibility of the metal surface slipping). The metal feed speed is more than 6 meters per minute. Four-roll machines are distinguished by workplace automation. Due to the complexity of the machines and ensuring safety in the workplace, such devices have a fairly high price.

Variety of rolling machines

Manual machines. The stationarity and practicality of using this type of machines cannot but captivate. Ease of operation and independence from power sources make such devices truly indispensable. A clamp and several shafts, driven by a chain drive, are attached to the machine bed. Of course, it is necessary to understand that such rollers are not intended for large-scale or industrial use, otherwise the service life of such devices will be quite short. When using manual rolling machines correctly, a number of advantages can be identified:

Low cost;
Possibility of dismantling the upper shaft;
Available adjustment of the lower and rear shafts;
Small dimensions;
Reliability of the device due to the simplicity of the design.

Such mechanisms are widely used by jewelry workshops. The rotating cylinders are made of carbon alloy steel for added strength.

Hydraulic models. They have a hydraulic drive, which is characterized by high power. It has high performance and heavy weight.

Electrical units. They are characterized by high productivity due to the use of high power electric drives. The operating principle is identical to manual rolling machines, the only difference is the presence of an electric motor.

Requirements for homemade rollers

Rolling machines at home must meet the following requirements:

Mobility. The machine should not be bulky or heavy to ensure its mobility;
Economical. You should not use a high-power machine unless absolutely necessary, because a power of 20-25 kW can damage the wiring. 1.5 kW is the best option, with good throughput and low energy consumption.

Assembling the machine yourself

When assembling a machine with your own hands, you need to prepare all the necessary tools, pre-prepared machine drawings and materials. It is advisable to have experience in mechanizing devices and apparatus, and also take into account a certain sequence of actions:

Manufacturing begins from the base. That is, from the bed. As a frame, you can use a small frame assembled from pipes;
As a rule, deformation elements are installed in the upper part of the profile. To securely fix it, use a threaded clamp. The support is made in the form of the letter P, with the subsequent securing of the lower part in the frame;
To rotate the device, it is necessary to use a transmission chain;
After installing the chain on the sprockets, it is necessary to tension it and carry out work on assembling the feed handle;
For the production of rollers, the best material is steel;
A prerequisite for such a mechanism is the ability to adjust the gap between the shafts;
To fix the rollers to the frame, experts recommend the use of rolling bearings.

Whether or not it’s worth making a rolling machine with your own hands is up to you to decide! It should be noted that the cost of ready-made units ranges from 500 to 1000 USD. Then, when calculating the profitability of the application, take the cost of the planned design, which may turn out to be several times cheaper than a new unit.

Many products are made from sheet metal - drainage systems, shaped parts for cladding or metal tiles, flashings for bases, corners for structures made of corrugated sheets, etc. All this can be done by a special bending machine for sheet metal. We’ll talk about how to make a sheet bending machine with your own hands in this article.

Types of sheet benders

All these devices are classified as sheet bending machines. The easiest way to make one with your own hands is the unit of the first group, a little more difficult - the third (rollers for sheet metal). So we’ll talk about them - from how to make a sheet bending machine with your own hands.

Simple manual

Shaped metal parts cost a lot of money. Even more than corrugated sheeting or metal tiles, therefore it makes sense to make a simple machine for bending sheet metal, and with its help make as many corners, ebbs and other similar parts as you need, and exclusively to your own dimensions.

Bending machine - side view

If you're worried about appearance, you shouldn't be. On sale today there is sheet metal not only galvanized, but also painted. In all designs, the sheet is fixed tightly, so that when working it does not slide on the table, which means that the paint does not rub off or get scratched. It is also not damaged in places of bending. So the products will look quite decent. If you try, they will look even better than what they sell on the market.

Powerful sheet bending machine from brands

This sheet bending machine will require a flat surface (table), preferably metal, three corners with a shelf width of at least 45 mm, and a metal thickness of at least 3 mm. If you plan to bend long workpieces (more than a meter), it is advisable to take wider shelves and thicker metal. You can use brands, but this is for bending sheets of metal of great thickness and length.

You will also need metal door hinges (two pieces), two large diameter screws (10-20 mm), wings on them, and a spring. You will also need a welding machine - weld the hinges and make holes (or a drill with a metal drill bit).

For a homemade sheet bender, a 70 mm brand was used - three pieces of 2.5 m each, two bolts of 20 mm in diameter, a small piece of metal 5 mm thick (for cutting jibs), a spring. Here's the procedure:

Two brands are folded, and grooves are cut into them at both ends for hinges. The edges of the recesses are beveled at 45°. The third tee is cut in exactly the same way, only the depth of the recess is made a little larger - this will be the clamping bar, so it should move freely.
Weld the loops on both sides (weld on the front and back).
Two jibs on each side are welded to one of the brands (the one farthest from you, if you “open” them). They are needed so that you can install the clamping bar clamp bolt on them.
Weld the bolt nut to the jibs.
Install the clamping bar (third cut tee), weld metal plates with a hole in the middle in the upper part. The diameter of the hole is slightly larger than the diameter of the bolt. Center the holes so that they are on the same vertical line with the welded nut. Weld.
Cut the spring so that it raises the pressure bar by 5-7 mm. Pass the bolt into the “ear” of the clamping bar, put on the spring, and tighten the nut. After installing the same spring on the other side, the clamping bar rises on its own when unscrewed.
Weld two pieces of reinforcement to the screw head to serve as handles for tightening.
Weld a handle to the movable (closest to you) brand. That's it, you can work.

This option is very powerful - you can bend long workpieces and sheets of considerable thickness. Such scales are not always in demand, but they can always be reduced. The video suggests a similar design of a smaller size, but with a different fastening of the clamping bar. By the way, no one bothers you to also install a spring on the screw - it will be easier to raise the bar. What’s interesting about this design is that you can make beading on it, something that such devices usually cannot do.

From a corner with a different type of clamping bar

This model is welded from a thick-walled angle, the frame is made like an ordinary construction sawhorse, which is welded from the same angle. The handle is from a luggage trolley. The design of the screws is interesting - they are long, the handle is curved in the shape of the letter “L”. Convenient to unscrew/screw.

This homemade sheet metal bending machine has many features:

Now let's move on to the design of the clamping bar (pictured above). It is also made from a corner, but is laid on the machine with an upward bend. To ensure that the bar does not bend during operation, reinforcement is welded on - metal jumpers. Small metal platforms are welded at both ends of the strip, in which holes are drilled for bolts.

Another important point is that the edge that faces the bend is cut off to obtain a sharper bend angle.

The clamping bar is placed on the machine, and a spring is placed in the place where the nut is installed. The handle is installed in place. If it does not press the bar, it is raised above the surface due to the elastic force of the spring. In this position, the workpiece is tucked under it, positioned, and pressed.

Place a spring under the hole, then a bolt

A good option for home use. It will not be possible to bend thick metal, but tin and galvanized steel can be bent without difficulty.

Sheet metal rollers or roller bender

This type of sheet bending machine can have three types of drive:

manual;
hydraulic;
electric.

They make rollers for sheet metal with manual or electric drive with their own hands. Manual ones have 3 shafts, electric ones can have 3-4, but usually there are also three.

This machine needs a good solid foundation. This could be a separate bed or some kind of workbench or table. The basis of the structure is rolls. They are made the same size. The two lower ones are installed permanently, the upper one is movable, so that in the lower position it is located between the rollers. By changing the distance between the lower rollers and the upper one, the radius of curvature changes.

The machine is set in motion using a handle attached to one of the shafts. Then the torque is transmitted to other rollers through sprockets. They are selected so that the rotation speed is the same.

If the equipment is intended to produce pipes, the upper roller on one side is made removable, with a quick fixation system. Once the sheet is rolled into a pipe, there is no other way to pull it out.

If it is necessary to frequently produce hollow or cone-shaped products from thin sheet metal, the main technological process is bending, and the most suitable equipment is three-roll sheet bending rollers. Why three-roll? Because the kinematic diagram of four-roll sheet bending machines with manual drive becomes significantly more complicated, and no visible benefits can be obtained from this.

How to develop technical specifications for the development of a rolling machine with your own hands

The simplest diagram of a three-roll manual machine includes:

Frame base.
Two side posts with holes for bearing units.
Three longitudinal shafts, one of which – the upper one – is placed at an angle of 60° relative to the other two.
A set of work rolls, the number of which depends on the maximum value of the outer diameter of the workpiece being rolled.
A handle for rotating the lower drive rollers.
A gear or chain transmission that will ensure synchronous rotation of the drive rolls in one direction.
A pressure unit with compression springs, which will provide the ability to press the non-drive roll against the workpiece. It is easier to do it on the left or right, since the thin sheet comes out of the gap quite easily when changing its original value on only one side.
A device for rotating one of the stands of a rolling machine in order to replace work rolls.

First of all, it is necessary to clearly limit the technical capabilities of the designed rolling equipment. A manually driven rolling machine is capable of bending sheet metal with a thickness of no more than 1 - 1.5 mm, with a workpiece width of up to 600 mm. With the low energy intensity of the bending process itself, friction losses in gears and bearings turn out to be very significant, which will force the operator to increase the muscular force applied to rotate the work rolls. Meanwhile, the visible unevenness of their rotation will cause unwanted distortions in the shape of the profiled product.

Of the two options - asymmetrical or symmetrical placement of drive rolls - preference should be given to the second option, since in this case it is much easier to make rollers with your own hands.

Manufacturing sequence of a manually driven rolling machine

It is best to use ready-made drawings for homemade rollers, which are available on specialized forums. If it is necessary to make a manual rolling machine for other parameters of the parts being produced, then the design begins with determining the force and torque required for bending. These values will be minimal in the case of deformation of aluminum grades AD0 or AD1, but with a workpiece thickness of up to 0.8 mm, low-carbon steel grades steel 08 or steel 08kp can also be bent. If the obtained values satisfy the physical capabilities of the performer, then we can move on from design to the manufacture of parts for future sheet bending rollers.

To make a roller machine with your own hands, you first need a drawing of the general view of the machine, where you should depict the kinematic diagram of the movement of all its moving parts. You will also need drawings of assembly units and working drawings of non-standardized parts of a three-roll sheet bender. It is desirable that there be fewer such parts, since making many of them at home, and with your own hands, is difficult, if not impossible. In particular, it makes sense to find guides with a round cross-section, for example, from a decommissioned 1K62 or smaller lathe: their technical condition will allow the use of these parts for the support shafts of sheet-bending rollers. The same applies to the gear pair. Next, using the existing parts, you can clarify the characteristics of future three-roll rollers and make a selection of rolling bearings for all shafts.

It is advisable to use ready-made drawings for the following components:

Non-drive roll clamp unit, which resembles a conventional clamp in the form of a clamp, mounted in one of the racks;
Bearing housings in which the rollers will rotate;
Support frame of the rolling machine.

The listed drawings are usually universal and do not need modification for specific products, the bending of which is supposed to be carried out on rollers assembled by hand.

Assembling a rolling machine with your own hands

Homemade roller benders with manual drive are assembled in the following sequence:

The frame of the rolling machine is welded (according to the dimensions shown in the general drawing).
Side racks are mounted, for which a steel channel profile made of low-carbon steel grade 09G2S or similar is suitable.
The housing is attached to the transmission parts (if you have to make the gears yourself or order them, then to install the chain transmission you can select power sprockets and a tension chain, for example, from a mountain bike).
The shafts are inserted into the holes of the bearing housings, after which their parallelism is set, and the final fixation of the machine components is carried out.
Before final assembly of the roller unit with your own hands, it is worth doing a test bending of the part, clarifying the amount and nature of lubrication of the bearing supports, and also adjusting the tension of the drive chain.

If the rollers are intended to be installed in an unheated room (for example, in a garage), then all parts should be painted with weather-resistant paint or taken care of with an anti-corrosion coating.