Starting guides, sometimes called entry tables, are used to position strip material so that its centerline will match that of the rolls of the first pass, and so that the strip will be at the correct pass line height. On a machine that is dedicated to produce one product, and only one, the starting guide may consist of a pair of guide rails mounted in fixed location on a non-adjustable base which has been permanently mounted on the roll former base so that the pass line height and product centerline are matched.

The more common starting guide is adjustable for height, and has independently adjustable guide rails. This requires that when making a setup, the starting guide must be adjusted to match the pass line height, and the guide rails independently adjusted to the strip edges loosely enough to accommodate the maximum width of the strip material as well as camber that may exist. If a starter pass, as in Fig. 4.10, is used, material can be entered into it, and the starting guide adjusted to the material. Because of strip width tolerances and camber, the centerline match is not perfect but is close enough to make it easy to start subsequent strips into the first forming pass as coil changes are made. A possible design variation of the starting guide would be one which utilized a single right hand/left hand screw to adjust the guide rails simultaneously to any arbitrary strip width within its range. The starting...