Achieving climate targets with rollforms

Roll-formed steel profiles are the preferred choice when it comes to energy efficiency, climate friendliness and resource conservation. Thanks to the extremely positive energy balance of the roll forming process and the 100% recyclability of steel, roll-formed profiles are both cost-effective and sustainable and meet the current EU requirements for sustainable products. The entire supplier industry is currently facing explosive increases in the cost of electricity and gas. Manufacturers of energy-intensive products or companies with less energy-efficient processes are being hit particularly hard. The roll forming process scores points here with its excellent energy efficiency and extremely positive environmental balance. In addition, the material utilization rate is close to one hundred percent.

Material cycles for climate targets
In order to achieve the challenging climate targets, the European Commission has launched a legislative initiative for a sustainable product policy so that certain products can be developed in such a way that they can be fed back into the material cycle again and again. The Federation of German Industries (BDI) is also aiming to achieve this with its Circular Economy initiative and is calling for the decarbonization of products, among other things. This means that in addition to consistently avoiding or offsetting CO2 emissions, products and materials should be able to be seamlessly fed into and removed from material cycles in the future. “On the one hand, the corresponding requirements are intended to increase energy efficiency during production and operation. On the other hand, products should be durable, reusable and recyclable,” explains Ekkehard Böhm, Managing Director of the Tillmann Group and Chairman of the European Cold Rolled Section Association (ECRA).
What is needed is a mix of innovation-driven improvements for circular economy products and common standards for sustainable product design. “The use of raw materials such as steel, stainless steel or other metals that are recovered through the high-quality recycling of waste can demonstrably make an important contribution to reducing CO2 emissions,” Böhm emphasizes. In the last legislative period, the German government had already stipulated stricter inspection obligations for the use of materials from the circular economy by the awarding authorities with an amendment to Section 45 of the Recycling Management Act (KrWG). As part of its Green Deal, the European Commission is now planning to propose binding minimum criteria and targets for green public procurement in industry-specific legislation.

Roll forming with outstanding energy efficiency
“Overall, it can be said that the roll forming industry is well prepared for the planned legal requirements,” explains Martin Kunkel, Managing Director of ECRA. “As the material consumption and the weight of the workpieces are low, roll forming is a forming process that improves the product properties in a resource-saving way compared to conventional processes.” Material loss is significantly lower compared to components produced by machining, for example. Due to work hardening, roll-formed workpieces with lower material thicknesses achieve comparable mechanical strength.

In addition to numerous legal requirements regarding climate neutrality, many steel and metal production companies are struggling with the current rise in energy prices. For some companies, it is even threatening their existence. “The roll forming industry with its cold-formed steel profiles is getting through this energy crisis comparatively well,” emphasizes Martin Kunkel. “This is because the forming process associated with cold rolling does not involve heating the semi-finished product, which results in a relatively low overall energy requirement.” In addition to the energy for the actual forming itself, energy is only consumed for the friction processes and the acceleration of the masses of the workpiece profile, tools and machine components. In addition, the moving tool components and the small contact surfaces during the acceleration processes have a positive effect on the energy efficiency of the continuous process.

Resource-saving circular economy
Roll forming is also characterized by a high degree of flexibility in the process, great variability in the end products and low tool costs. In contrast to deep-drawing processes or conventional sheet metal processing, roll forming can be used to produce very complex, thin-walled yet highly resilient profiles in all conceivable designs and cross-sections and, above all, in any length with high precision and extremely quickly. Even high-strength steels can be processed by roll forming, which is particularly advantageous in lightweight construction. Additional functionalities such as threads, offsets, embossing, recesses or pre-processing are also possible. The vertical range of manufacture is correspondingly high. Due to the process, the material utilization is very high, as there are only remnants when entering the roll forming machine as well as punching remnants, which can even be 100% recycled without any loss of quality in the case of steel profiles. Roll-formed profiles are used, for example, in elevator construction, escalators, as façade profiles, for roller shutters, in car washes, for shelving and LED lighting systems, as drawer pull-outs, for solar systems or toy car racing tracks.