Strip method

Hot-rolled strip is often shipped directly from the mill in large coils. Frequently, the larger coils are slit into narrower coils or edge trimmed or cut to length into sheets at the finishing section of a steel plant. Coils and sheets are shipped either with the hot-rolled surface or with the scale removed and the surface oiled.

Cold-rolled strip is produced from hot-rolled strip. Steel plants provide this product in coils or sheets. Cold-rolled products are available in a great variety of surface conditions, often with a specific roughness, electrolytically cleaned, chemically treated, oiled, or coated with metals such as zinc, tin, chromium, aluminium or with organic substances.

Bars can have square, rectangular, flat, round, hexagonal or octagonal cross sections. They are sometimes cold drawn or ground to very precise dimensions for use in machine parts. A special group of rounds are the reinforcing bars, which provide tensile strength to concrete sections subjected to a bending load. These normally have hot-rolled protrusions on their surface to improve bonding with the concrete. Some bar mills also produce small channels, angles, tees, zees, and fence-post sections. These products are called merchant bars.


Structural shapes and rails: common shapes are wide flange I-beams, standard I-beams, channels, angles, tees, zees, H-pilings, and sheet pilings. Rails include railway rails as well as a great number of special rails (for example for cranes and heavy transfer cars or for use in mines and construction). Tubular steels are broadly grouped into welded and seamless products