New forming technique for the automotive industry

Lars Ingvarsson
Ortic AB

Ortic AB is a successful company in the County of Dalarna, and manufactures roll forming machines for sheet steel. The Head Office of the company is in the town of Borlänge, where all development, design and assembly are pursued. The company’s Ortic Verkstads AB subsidiary is located in Kopparberg and its task is to carry out all machining work. The company has around 30 employees.

Excellent for high strength materials
The production method is eminently well suited for high strength materials. It is much easier to achieve straight, perfect products by roll forming. Roll forming can be described in simple terms as a method in which a flat piece of sheet steel is fed into one end of the machine, and a profile of exactly the form ordered by the purchaser comes out of other. No rolling takes places – merely profile folding. A breakthrough for the method came in the 1970s, but a major development advance was not made until 2001.

Roof for airport
That was the year when the BEMO company in Germany got in touch with me. BEMO had been awarded the order for producing conical roof panels for the circular roof of the airport at Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. Prior to that date, no one had tried roll forming anything other than straight products, but I solved the problem in only three weeks. The conical profile is formed by letting the sheet steel strip run straight through the machine, while the cutting tool and the roll forming tool move along a conical path. We solved the problem by providing each side of the roll forming machine with cutters and by inclining the two sides. Ortic then built a container with a roll forming machine and transported it to site. An important development step was taken, and entirely new opportunities were opened to the world’s architects.

Arena in Budapest
This was followed by the problem of designing spherical buildings. The result was the Arena in Budapest that consists of 4700 individual, non-linear panels. This was the technique we employed for six of the arenas for the Olympic Games in Athens, which resulted in BEMO and myself being awarded honourable mention in the Swedish Steel Prize 2004. This was an intensive development period for the company. Up to the present day, we have produced six machines, two of which are in China and one in Dubai.

Automotive industry interested
The successes raised new questions, and eyes switched to other markets. Could the automotive industry become interested? Could roll forming be employed for parts that are not straight? Peter Augustsson, former Managing Director of Saab, became part-owner and Managing Director of Ortic AB a year ago. His interest was aroused when he found out that roll forming could be used for complicated parts for cars, such as window frames, bumpers, side collision beams, etc. Around 20 percent of the components of a car could be roll formed by the 3D technique.

Prototype machine in Metall Working Centre
We have now a prototype machine in the Metall Working Centre, which is in Borlänge in Sweden. Together with Dalarna University and with the support of Triple Steelix and others, we will demonstrate that the technique performs well. The prototype machine also benefits by being in the proximity of SSAB Tunnplåt. Volvo and Saab have picked out a number of components that will be tested during the summer and autumn.

Virtually unlimited opportunities
A 3D roll forming line provides both production engineering and economic benefits. 3D roll forming offers virtually unlimited opportunities.