Roll grooving is a cold forming process that creates a groove near the end of a pipe without removing any material. Using a roll grooving machine, a pipe is pressed between a grooving roll and a pressure roll. The pressure displaces the pipe material to form a circular groove around the outer surface while maintaining the integrity of the pipe wall.

This groove is then used to connect the pipe to another using a mechanical coupling—typically with a rubber gasket inside—which locks into the groove to form a strong, leak-tight joint.

There are several reasons roll grooving has become a preferred method in many industries:

A roll grooved spool is a pre-fabricated section of pipe that has been roll grooved at one or both ends and is ready for installation within a piping system.

It’s essentially a “ready-to-go” segment of pipe—cut to length, cleaned, and grooved—so that it can be quickly connected using mechanical couplings on-site.

Roll grooved spools are most commonly used in systems that rely on grooved mechanical couplings—like those made by Victaulic or Gruvlok. These systems are common in:

The spools are brought to the construction site, aligned into the system, and joined quickly without welding using rubber-gasketed couplings that snap into the grooves.