Cold or Hot Stainless Steel Rolled Sheet: Which One to Choose?

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What is Steel Rolling?

Stainless steel is a form of steel that consists of chromium which is resistant to tarnishing and rust. Rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock passes through one or more pairs of rolls to reduce the thickness. It also makes the thickness even throughout the material as rolling dough. Stainless Steel Rolled Sheet is a steel product which is rolled into thin plates to work on various different conditions. The Stainless Steel Cold rolled sheet and Hot rolled sheet are the two types of steel rolling process.

Rolling is form of molding where the metal is rolled through the rising temperature. 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.

Stainless Steel Hot Rolled Sheet:
Hot rolling is a process of rolling the steel at a high temperature around or over 1700 degrees F. It is above the steel’s recrystallization temperature and thus, it is called Hot rolled sheet. When the steel is above the recrystallization temperature, it can be shaped and formed easily. In this process, the steel can be made in much larger sizes easily. Steel hot rolled products like hot rolled bars are used in the welding and construction trades to make railroad tracks and I-beams, these are used in situations where precise shapes and tolerances are not required.

Stainless Steel Cold Rolled Sheet:
Cold rolled steel is processed through hot rolled steel that had further been processed. This is processed in cold reduction mills where the material is cooled at room temperature. Next it goes through the annealing or tempers rolling procedure. This produces steel with closer dimensional tolerances and a wider range of surface finishes.

This process results in higher yield points advantages like:
• Turning gets rid of surface imperfections.
• Grinding narrows the original size tolerance range.
• Polishing improves the surface finish.
• All Stainless Steel Cold Rolled Sheet provide a superior surface finish, and are superior in tolerance, concentricity, and straightness when compared to hot rolled.

In terms of usage and volume, hot rolling processes more than any other manufacturing process and cold rolling processes the most by tonnage out of all cold working processes. Roll stands holding pairs of rolls are grouped together into rolling mills that can quickly process metal into products such as structural steel I-beams, angle stock, channel stock, bar stock, and rails. Most steel mills have rolling mill divisions that can convert the casting products into finished products.

Available in either thick plates or thin, Stainless Steel Hot Rolled Sheet can handle high temperature. Hot rolled steel is typically cheaper than cold rolled steel due to the fact that it is often manufactured without any delays in the process, whereas the reheating of the steel is required for cold rolled sheet. Stainless Steel Cold Rolled Sheet, on the other hand increases the yield and tensile strengths, thus, produces the cold finished bars which are harder to work with than hot rolled due to the increased carbon content.