Folding machine: what is it for, machine capabilities, selection and prices

Roofers know that installing a seam roof is a specific process that requires professional knowledge and accuracy. The article describes a machine for standing seam roofing, a key element of such installation work. The proposed material will introduce you to the principles of technology and the advantages of using the mechanism, its characteristics, basic and additional functions, and the advantages of automation. You will learn about selection criteria and prices for some models.


Machine at work Source stroy-podskazka.ru

About the origins of technology

The spread of seam roofing began in the Middle Ages. At that time, the roofs of wealthy people's houses were usually made of lead; thick lead plates were joined by hand. With the development of technology, new sheet materials have appeared; today you can find roofing made of copper, aluminum-zinc alloys; a popular variety is galvanized steel with a decorative and protective polymer coating.

The elements of the first seam roofs were connected with simple seams using an angle and a mallet. Today, when installing roofs, more complex seams are used. To do this, sheets of roofing material are pre-prepared using special equipment for standing seam roofing in a workshop or directly on the construction site. The processed blanks (the professional name is roofing pictures) are connected with a reliable seam with a high level of tightness; folded ribs increase the rigidity of the roof and serve as guides for rain and melt water.


Modern seam roof Source krovlyakryshi.ru

Frames: hand tools for small areas

To perform work on a seam roof with European quality, you will need certain tools. And don’t be surprised that you will come across a variety of names for them, which often leads to confusion.

So, to work with seam roofing yourself, you will need the following devices:

So, first of all, you will need a mallet. Relatively recently, a wooden one was still used, but today a plastic one with a wedge shape is much more convenient. It is convenient to perform a whole range of operations.

Next, a hammer with a plastic tip for making double radius folds when you go around the fireplace chimneys. This plastic hammer does not damage the roofing at all.

You will also need a special steel spatula - an iron. With it you can install aprons around difficult areas of the roof. See exactly how all these tools are used in practice:

In addition, it happens that the seaming machine cannot be started from the end of the roof or used in short areas. Therefore, in such cases, frameworks will be needed.

Trimming and adjusting paintings

So, you will need to trim and bend all the paintings on the roof with special scissors:

To trim paintings, you will need universal scissors (otherwise called ideal scissors). Moreover, both right and left ones are needed to make the necessary workpieces without damage.

Another necessary tool is tweezers. Large, with a beveled angle at 45°, straight - with two angles at 45° for the manufacture of collars for chimneys and roof windows. Large pliers are needed to carry out beading up to 180 mm high.

But it happens that the depth of the round nose pliers is not enough, then they use a “heron” to make an abutment up to 150 mm high. All this is necessary in order to make a double fold when going around openings in the roof.

When the amount of work to be done is large, pelican scissors with a long cut are used. By the way, the very tool that we call a “parrot” is needed not as a nail puller, but as a special device for opening a double fold. You can’t do without it where you can’t use bending machines.

The finished paintings with curved edges are placed on the crate and connected to each other with clamps. The next step is to join such seams into a double fold using a manual or electric tool.

Design of roof ends and overhangs

The overhangs of a seam roof are designed as follows:

To work with the end of the overhang you will need all this:

Here's how to use this tool:

Roofing in the valley

To work with the valley you will need the following tools:

In practice it looks like this:

But to decorate the internal fractures of the roof, you will also need a mallet:

Folding machines: technology overview

In country house construction, seam roofing has a reputation as a practical and beautiful design, and therefore is in steady demand. Technologically, a fold is a seam, a connection of two adjacent sheets by twisting (bending) along the edge. To perform the bend, a folding machine is used, which prepares the material and allows you to make two types of joints:

  • Single fold . The original and still widespread method involves twisting sheets in one turn. Such a connection can be standing (rack and pinion) or lying when it is necessary to connect the workpieces along the length.
  • Double fold . A complicated type of single, in which sheets are twisted in two turns. There is a recumbent connection option, when the seam is additionally turned to one side.


Methods for forming connections Source arhplan.ru
For roofing installation work, mechanical and automated devices are used; the use of the latter is preferable, since it allows you to achieve high quality seams with less time. The use of roofing (seam) machines when arranging a roof allows you to organize work as follows:

  • Blanks . Sheet metal is used in rolls, from which blanks are cut to the required length. The use of rolled materials saves money, since roofing iron in rolls costs much less than sheets. An additional benefit is that the number of trims is reduced, which also reduces consumption.
  • Operating principle of the machine . The unit is equipped with a number of crimping shaped rollers, installed in pairs and bending the metal sheet as it moves through the unit.
  • Preparation of roofing paintings . It is advisable to install the machine at a facility under construction, this allows you to quickly prepare the required number of paintings of a given length (installation is carried out without unnecessary joints).


Prepared paintings Source mytooling.ru

  • Nuances . A folding machine is used only for bending the edges of sheets to a certain shape. Next, the machine for seam roofing gets to work - a seam-folding (seam-rolling) tool (also called a bending press), which completes the work - crimps the joint and forms a double seam.

See also: Catalog of companies that specialize in roof repair and design.

How to assemble the machine yourself

Not every person can afford to buy a folding machine, so very often people try to manually assemble such a device. A self-made folder is unlikely to have the same functions, but it will cost you only 2,000 - 3,000 rubles.

Appearance

The self-made machine is designed for use in a home workshop. Such a device is screwed to a workbench made of wood, but if you make legs for it by welding, then such a machine can be easily moved.

Device

The structure as a whole consists of three parts. Everything is usually welded and screwed onto the base part.

  1. So, take a metal corner with a wing of 7.5 cm (minimum), and if you take a wing of 10 cm, then the device will only benefit from this.
  2. At the top, on the supporting corner, weld 4 garage-type hinges. There will be movement of the crimping punch on them.
  3. Screw the limiting shelf in front, but a folding tooth must be inserted between the base corner and the shelf, which helps form the folds.
  4. Both the shelf and the crimping punch make their corners 7.5 cm, and in addition, a handle needs to be welded to the crimping punch, which can be made even from the simplest pipe

Please note that the most difficult thing is to find perfectly even corners. The easiest way is to give them to a milling machine, since if this is not done, the folds will be crooked.

Scheme

To begin with, you should screw the front part of the structure to the base corner:


  1. Place a gasket on the fastening bolts; for this you can use a metal strip with a thickness of 0.1 cm.

  2. Next, put a crimping tooth on the gasket, which will be made from a band saw. Since the working length of the device is 1.2 meters, it is desirable that the sheet have the same parameters, but it is better to make it for a standard sheet of 1.25 meters. Before installation, the blade must be chamfered.
  3. Lastly, we put the support shelf on the bolts, and then tighten everything.

It was not in vain that a band saw blade was chosen for the crimping tooth, since the manufacture of a folding machine requires a strong and inflexible metal.

Main parameters

To get a high-quality fold, you should set two main parameters:

  • There should be a distance of 0.6 cm from the lining to the crimping upper tooth.
  • The distance from the upper crimping tooth to the supporting shelf should be 0.8 cm.

With such dimensions, the seam allowance will be 2 cm, i.e. 1 cm should be set aside on the edges of adjacent sheets.

Operating principle

How to use the device:


  • To make a bend on metal at a right angle, you should place the workpiece in the groove and bend it until the workpiece rests on the shelf.

  • To create a full rebate, you need to push the crimping punch all the way until it contacts the support flange.

The work of the folder is in the video.

Benefits of use

The use of folding tools is beneficial for the following reasons:

  • The use of roll technology allows paintings to be cut and processed along the entire length of the slope . At the same time, the reliability and service life of the roof increases, since there are no horizontal (transverse) connections, and the total number of joints is reduced.
  • Thanks to the compact size of the tool, rental can be carried out both on the construction site and on the roof, which is much more convenient and increases the speed of work.
  • Productivity increases significantly : the speed of roofing production increases tens of times (when compared with the manual method). Two or three large orders allow you to recoup the funds spent on purchasing an automatic machine.


Manual method of preparing paintings Source rmnt.mirtesen.ru
The folding tool has several possible uses, as it allows you to make connections, which include:

  • Basic connection: double standing seam for roof installation.
  • Single standing seam . The simplest design, suitable for roofs with a slope of at least 10°. Increases rigidity, used for longitudinal connections.
  • Recumbent longitudinal fold . The seam is used when connecting edges running across the slope, as well as the closing and longitudinal ones in the manufacture of drainpipes and ventilation pipes of any cross-section.
  • Corner (L-shaped) standing seam . Allows you to reliably connect shaped sections. Creates a volume effect, which allows it to be used for decorative purposes, for finishing large surfaces.
  • Rack and pinion A type of connection that is more characteristic of European housing construction; resembles a double vertical fold.


Preparing paintings at the installation site Source mytooling.ru

Conclusion

I hope now it will be easier for you to choose a folding machine. As for homemade products, they are good at the amateur level, but for professional work it is better to purchase a factory machine. If you have any questions, write in the comments, I will try to help.

Professional roofing work is not possible without the use of a seam rolling machine.

Main characteristics of roofing machines

The modern market offers models of profiling equipment with various characteristics. The main characteristics include the following parameters:

  • Type of drive . Typically electric (electric motor). Sometimes there are models with a manual drive, but you can’t call it professional; performance suffers greatly.
  • Metal thickness . In roofing work, metal with a thickness of 0.5 to 1.2 mm is used, which is within the capabilities of an average tool. A good machine is designed to work with sheets with a thickness of 0.3 to 1.5 mm; Such equipment allows the production of additional roofing elements (for example, ridge caps) and blanks for gutters and air ducts.

Listogiby: machines for cold bending of pictures

One of the main tools is sheet bending machines. These are special devices that are equipped with a circular blade for cutting metal.

Usually a team is hired to work with such tools. But it is important that at least one person has the necessary qualifications. After all, even on a simple roof there will be many complex components. In just one day, two teams of roofers cover up to 500 square meters of roofing.

In Russia today they mainly use European instruments:

The following Austrian brands are also known:

Tool selection

When manufacturing and installing a roof, the minimum required set is a roofing rolling machine and a folding machine. To choose a machine for standing seam roofing, you need to decide on the following factors:

  • Volume and type of work , type of material being processed.
  • The need for automation . The machine with an automatic control system (automatic control system) is designed for serial production of paintings. The automated control system allows you to adjust the rolling speed, number and length of panels. The automatic machine will allow replacing 5-7 roofers while maintaining productivity.
  • Advanced features . Many models are equipped with additional capabilities: a kit for forming semicircular or trapezoidal stiffeners. The presence of additional rollers improves the quality of crimping, which can also affect the choice of folding tool.

Tools and equipment for seam roofing

A good specialist has more than forty different tools in stock that are used when installing seam roofing. The standard roofer's kit includes:

  • wedge-shaped mallet, drill or screwdriver;
  • roofing and seam hammer;
  • metal scissors;
  • roofing mandrels and pliers for opening seams;
  • a set of pliers and all kinds of measuring devices.

    When installing a seam roof, in addition to experience and skill, you will need a set of simple and easy-to-use tools, which determine the speed and quality of the work.

Video: hammer and mandrel

However, standard tools are still secondary, although necessary. Their role in creating a seam roof is not as great as that of those used for stamping panels and forming bending units - a seam machine and a seam rolling machine. Therefore, let us dwell in more detail on this equipment.

Video: tool for forming envelopes “Heron” when making junctions

Tool prices

There is a common misconception that, since all the machines offered on the market are similar in design, this means that the result of their work is not qualitatively different. It is concluded that purchasing a unit at the lowest price (often from a newly formed company or a handicraft production) is a reasonable way to save money. As a result, the quality of performance inevitably suffers; the finished roofing covering (often made of expensive metal, patinated copper) looks chewed up and after a short time begins to leak.

Well-known manufacturers make sure that the models they produce ensure the production of profiles of the required quality. Such machines are equipped with well-thought-out components and parts that allow them to maintain the required height and configuration of the fold.


Profiling machine made in Poland Source abyhom.com

Currently, the market is replete with offers of equipment for seam roofing; the price for folding machines is as follows (average market prices):

  • KM 7.3 (3 folds) İLMAKSAN (Turkey). Designed for metal thickness 0.5-1.2 mm. 250-280 thousand rubles.
  • Metal Master MLC 12 DR - T (China). In addition to seam roof panels, it can be used for the production of ventilation pipes. 155-165 thousand rubles.
  • MetalMaster GLF A4C Universal , with different configurations. 170-180 thousand rubles.
  • Profiling machine SCHLEBACH QUADRO FALZ (Germany). Professional universal machine, profiling speed 14 m/s, 4.7-4.9 million rubles.
  • SBD4C (Taiwan). From 140-155 thousand rubles.
  • SPF 700 (MobiProf, Russia). Mobile model. 165-170 thousand rubles.


A seam roof can have any shape Source rmnt.mirtesen.ru
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Attaching pictures to the base of the roof

A typical seam roof usually consists of the following elements: rolled materials approximately 600-700 mm wide, sheets 0.6-0.7 meters wide and 2-3 meters long, special elements for working with curved surfaces, as well as rhombuses, honeycombs and their analogues of a different shape, flat or three-dimensional.

The folds are secured using clasps pre-woven into them. And the roofing strips are fixed with self-tapping screws or nails where they will be covered with roofing material.

Remember also that a seam roof has many additional elements:

Here is the process of installing roofing pictures:

Price and delivery terms

We have been supplying various machine tools for many years. On the company's website you can see the full range of seam-rolling machines for roofing. rofil employees will always come to your aid .

Price of machines

for rental of seam roofing, which can be purchased from X-Profil, is formed based on many factors. The main one is the manufacturer. Seam bending devices are made both in Russia and abroad. Among the major manufacturers of this equipment we can note such brands as Mobiprof (Russia), DIMOS (France), Schlebach (Germany), Draco (Germany).

At first glance, the high cost of a machine for standing seam roofing is justified by its good performance. By purchasing one such machine, you can load 2 teams of roofers with work and process 5 meters of rolled steel per minute.

At the same time, the mass of the mechanism is small, so it can be used directly at the site where installation is carried out. In addition, the cost of a machine for producing folds of a domestic brand is significantly lower than its foreign analogues.

Delivery

. In our company you can buy roofing equipment with delivery to any region of the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Belarus by transport companies of the buyer’s choice.

Preliminary calculations

Of course, we are talking about self-assembly of a simpler and less expensive unit than a CNC rolling machine. In artisanal conditions, for individual housing construction, a small manual bending mechanism is perfect. Before starting assembly, you should decide on a number of parameters:

  • geometric dimensions of the working surface as a whole and its individual parts - this will limit the maximum grip of the sheet length and edge depth;
  • consumables from which the machine will be made - bed, bending beam, crimping frame;
  • thickness of the processed sheet material.

The manual machine consists of a movable frame (traverse) with an angle and a static support on which the bending lever is located. The bed is designed in such a way that when the sheet is pressed tightly against it, the edge, clamped in the clamp, takes on the required bending shape. For manual processing, the maximum thickness of the metal sheet usually does not exceed 0.8 mm. The force applied by the machine does not allow creating even folds when using thicker sheets.

The simplest manual sheet bender is assembled on a monolithic base - it can be a table, metal scaffolding or any other base. For the mobility of equipment, it is important to assemble a mobile base - this can be any stable base made of a profile pipe or wooden beam.

Why do folds bend?

A seam or seam joint is a method of fastening sheet metal when installing a metal roof. Depending on the method of processing the edge of the metal sheet, as well as the location of the assembly seam relative to the plane of the slope, there are:

  • regular rebate;
  • standing seam;
  • inclined fold, or corner.

Typically, when laying metal strips parallel to the ridge (horizontally), a recumbent lock is used, and when installing longitudinal strips, standing or inclined locks are used. Each of the subtypes is determined by the corresponding edge processing scheme, but, in addition, the seam connection is characterized by other parameters. For example, the degree of compaction is single and double folds. In addition to the listed subtypes, there is also an L-shaped rebated lock, as well as a standing one - double-sided or rack.

The need to use seam joints is explained by the thermal mobility of the metal - expansion and contraction with a corresponding change in temperature. For additional mobility, interconnected sheets of metal are attached to the rafters using movable clamps.

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