I’ve toured more roofing shops than I can count, and—honestly—the machines that stick in my head aren’t always the fanciest. They’re the ones that keep running when the project schedule gets tight. YingYee’s “Good price horizontal arch span forming machine,” made in Shijiazhuang, Hebei (Room B1106, Zhongliang Plaza, No.345 Youyi North Street, Xinhua District), is exactly that kind of kit: practical, a bit no-nonsense, and surprisingly adaptable.
The line forms and bends separately—yes, two stages. Many customers say this gives them more control over crown and camber, particularly on big arches. The trade-off? You’ll need around 4–5 workers to carry semi-finished panels from forming to the bending section. On busy days, that feels old-school; on complex roofs, it’s oddly reassuring to have human eyes on each panel.
Coil loading → leveling → roll forming → pre-cut → manual transfer → arch bending → edge hemming (if specified) → QC checks → palletizing. Materials: galvanized steel (ASTM A653), pre-painted steel (PPGI), Al-Mn alloys like 3003/3105 for lighter roofs. Methods are pretty standard, but YingYee’s team tends to tune forming stands to reduce oil-canning—small detail, big difference.
| Parameter | Typical Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Material thickness | 0.6–1.2 mm (steel); 0.8–1.5 mm (aluminum) | Real-world use may vary with yield strength |
| Max coil width | ≈ 1000–1250 mm | Common for long-span arches |
| Line speed | 12–18 m/min (forming); bending batch-mode | Operator-dependent |
| Bending radius | R ≈ 3–30 m | Material/coating sensitive |
| Power | ~15–22 kW total | Forming + hydraulic units |
| Certifications | ISO 9001, CE (Machinery) | Documentation on request |
Incoming coils get coating adhesion checks (ASTM D3359), hardness sampling, and thickness verification. Finished arches are checked for straightness (≤2 mm/m), burr height (≤0.1 mm), and curvature tolerance (±0.5%). Noise near the forming head hovered around 78–82 dB in my last visit; energy draw was roughly 10–14 kWh per productive hour—your mileage will vary with thickness.
With routine lubrication and annual bearing checks, the machine’s service life is typically 10–15 years. Panels produced with AZ150 or good polyester/PVDF systems last 25–40 years coastal, longer inland, assuming proper fastening and sealants.
| Vendor | Forming Stations | Max Width | Automation | After-sales | Price Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YingYee (this model) | ≈16–22 | 1250 mm | Semi-automatic; separate bending | Remote + on-site setup | Value |
| Vendor A | 20–24 | 1250 mm | Integrated bend, higher automation | Global network | Premium |
| Vendor B | 14–18 | 1000–1200 mm | Manual bending add-on | Regional agents | Budget |
Common requests include polyurethane roll coatings (to protect PPGI), quick-change cassettes for profile tweaks, servo depth control on the bender, and extended exit tables. I guess the sweet spot is adding servo bending if you run multiple radii every day.
“We swapped to aluminum 3105 on coastal jobs; springback was a thing, but the separate bender let us dial it in,” one foreman told me. Another customer liked the “plain-English” maintenance—no cryptic screens, just solid mechanics.
A logistics park in Southeast Asia rolled 7,000 m² of arch panels in eight days. Crew of five, 0.8 mm PPGI, average forming speed ~14 m/min, bend station cycling at roughly 90–110 s per panel. Scrap stayed below 2.5% after day two.
Standards referenced: ASTM A653 for galvanized substrates, ASTM D3359 for coating adhesion, CE Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, ISO 9001:2015 quality systems.
