ROLLED PRODUCTS
In metalworking, rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through one or more pairs of rolls to reduce the thickness, to make the thickness uniform, and/or to impart a desired mechanical property. The concept is similar to the rolling of dough. Rolling is classified according to the temperature of the metal rolled. If the temperature of the metal is above its recrystallization temperature, then the process is known as hot rolling. If the temperature of the metal is below its recrystallization temperature, the process is known as cold rolling. In terms of usage, hot rolling processes more tonnage than any other manufacturing process, and cold rolling processes the most tonnage out of all cold working processes.[1][2] Roll stands holding pairs of rolls are grouped together into rolling mills that can quickly process metal, typically steel, into products such as structural steel (I-beams, angle stock, channel stock), bar stock, and rails. Most steel mills have rolling mill divisions that convert the semi-finished casting products into finished products.
The invention of the rolling mill in Europe may be attributed to Leonardo da Vinci in his drawings.[3] The earliest rolling mills in crude form but the same basic principles were found in Middle East and South Asia as early as 600 BCE. Earliest rolling mills were slitting mills, which were introduced from what is now Belgium to England in 1590. These passed flat bars between rolls to form a plate of iron, which was then passed between grooved rolls (slitters) to produce rods of iron.[4] The first experiments at rolling iron for tinplate took place about 1670. In 1697, Major John Hanbury erected a mill at Pontypool to roll 'Pontypool plates' – blackplate. Later this began to be rerolled and tinned to make tinplate. The earlier production of plate iron in Europe had been in forges, not rolling mills.
Some of the earliest literature on rolling mills can be traced back to the Swedish engineer Christopher Polhem in his Patriotista Testamente of 1761, where he mentions rolling mills for both plate and bar iron.[5] He also explains how rolling mills can save on time and labor because a rolling mill can produce 10 to 20 or more bars at the same time.