Corrugation of Heated PVC Sheet through a Rolling System

We'll need more details...What is the intended use of these panels?

Quite.

Think of this problem. The sheets must be heated enough to become mouldable but as soon as it is rolled if has to be cooled to prevent it from reverting to some undesirable form.

Now when I was young every plumber had one of these manual rolling machines for making bull nosed iron. Thinking of your request then you could use one of these machines but sandwich the heated PVC sheet between two sheets of corrugated iron and roll them through the forming machine. As the sheets come through the machine clamp the finished product to keep the three together and then cool the sheets with cool hose water.

Thanks for the replies!

The following video depicts the process. Can someone elaborate on this forming process?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzFEYeqXhUA

As in vacuum forming, the PVC sheet requires heating above its softening point before attempting to form it and then cooling below its softening point while still being constrained. I assume you are familiar with the process, so I won't go through it here, as it is simple enough.

I assume that you want a continuous process, not forming a sheet at a time???

You will have to find a way to heat the sheet prior to going into the rollers, and then KEEP it constrained by the rollers until it is cool enough to retain its shape. Heating the rollers themselves may not provide the results you want unless you have a bank of progressively cooler rollers to hold the shape until cool enough.

It's looks like you'll need a preheat section prior to the rollers, then cooler rollers followed by a post roller cooling section.

This is all feasible for someone who understands thermoplastic forming. I think you'd need a lot of throughput to justify the cost.

But, I'm not even sure what you are really trying to do.

Please see the YouTube video I referred in my last post. I want to make the same type of corrugation in PVC sheets.

Should there be just two rollers or more than that? Should one roller be of molded metal and second one of molded rubber? I just need info on the rolling system.

Thanks

Read my post again. You'll need multiple, metal rollers.

Research "thermo-forming."

First you heat the pvc to minimum temperature for forming, then you press form it and allow it to cool while maintaining the shape...This appears to have a heating drum, so the pvc sheet has to move at the proper speed to match the temperature increase afforded by the heating drum, and slow enough to allow the pvc to cool enough to hold its shape....So the drum would have to have an adjustable source of heat that has tightly controlled temperature range...

Too many sharp edges....