The critical alignment for a roll-forming machine is to ensure that the shoulders of the dies are in a straight line for both the upper and lower die sections. Flatness and vertical parallelism of the dies to each other are also important.

The L-742 is uniquely qualified to perform both alignments usually with one set up. Using a fixture, three single-axis targets (A-1519, A-1519HR or A-1520) are mounted horizontally on three dies, either on the shoulder or the end. Two of the targets are mounted on the upper section and one on the lower section. The vertical laser is then made parallel, or "bucked in," to them. The rest of the dies, both in the upper and lower sections, can then be checked for axial straightness from the same setup. If they are out of tolerance, the targets can be left on the dies and used for alignment. When the readout reads zero, the die is aligned.

To check the vertical parallelism of the upper set of dies to the lower set, the horizontal laser plane is "bucked in" to the tops of 2 dies (using 3 reference points), usually in the upper section of dies. The single-axis targets can then be moved to other dies in the upper section to check for flatness deviation from the reference dies. To check parallelism, one target is placed on the lower set of dies and adjusted so it reads zero. It can then be moved to other dies on the lower section and any deviations from the reference points are a measure of parallelism.

The L-742 can also be used to check the squareness of the support wall to the machine bed by taking advantage of the L-742's built-in squareness.

A word of caution: If the machine is going to be aligned, rather than just measured, then it is important to put the laser on an instrument stand. If the laser is on the machine bed or table, adjusting it will most likely move the laser and thus affect the setup.