US Patent 7882718 Roll-former apparatus with rapid-adjust sweep box

A computer controlled roll-forming apparatus is adapted to provide a repeating pattern of different longitudinal shapes to a continuous beam “on the fly” during the roll-forming process. A sweep station of the apparatus includes a primary bending roller tangentially engaging the continuous beam along the line level and an armature for biasing the continuous beam against the primary bending roller for a distance partially around a downstream side of the primary bending roller to form a sweep. Actuators adjustably move the armature partially around the downstream side of the primary bending roller between multiple positions for imparting a series of different longitudinal shapes. Internal and external mandrels control wall stability to allow even sharper sweeps. In one form, the apparatus also includes a coordinated cut-off, so that when separated into bumper beam segments, the ends of the individual beam segments have a greater sweep than their center sections.