A European manufacturer of flexible fabrication systems recently added a roll forming tooling set to a system for making furnace wrappers. This an entirely new system for the manufacturer, who contracted Formtek to design and supply the tooling.
The roll forming tooling Formtek designed was a custom set, made specifically for this manufacturer’s existing machine. The furnace wrapper design has a completely new profile. It works by feeding a notched sheet into a roll-former which forms cross-sectional profiles. Sheets are then fed out into a bender that bends the roll-formed sheets into a wrapper. This light-gauge sheet metal component forms the top and two adjacent sides of a furnace’s housing.
Formtek’s design experience happened to be a good fit for the application, partially because their Dahlstrom and Lockformer brands had already done many light-gauge appliance applications like this for various other manufacturers. Contracting out the tooling to Formtek allowed the manufacturer to focus their engineering time on the wrap break and the overall system integration.