Metal rolling is one of the most im

Metal rolling is one of the most important manufacturing processes in the modern world. The large majority of all metal products produced today are subject to metal rolling at one point in their manufacture. Metal rolling is often the first step in creating raw metal forms. The ingot or continuous casting is hot rolled into a bloom or a slab, these are the basic structures for the creation of a wide range of manufactured forms. Blooms typically have a square cross section of greater than 6x6 inches. Slabs are rectangular and are usually greater than 10 inches in width and more than 1.5 inches in thickness. Rolling is most often, (particularly in the case of the conversion of an ingot or continuous casting), performed hot.At a rolling mill, blooms and slabs are further rolled down to intermediate parts such as plate, sheet, strip, coil, billets, bars and rods. Many of these products will be the starting material for subsequent manufacturing operations such as forging, sheet metal working, wire drawing, extrusion, and machining. Blooms are often rolled directly into I beams, H beams, channel beams, and T sections for structural applications. Rolled bar, of various shapes and special cross sections, is used in the machine building industry, as well as for construction. Rails, for the production of railroad track, are rolled directly from blooms. Plates and sheets are rolled from slabs, and are extremely important in the production of a wide range of manufactured items. Plates are generally considered to be over 1/4", (6mm), in thickness. Plates are used in heavy applications like boilers, bridges, nuclear vessels, large machines, tanks, and ships. Sheet is used for the production of car bodies, buses, train cars, airplane fuselages, refrigerators, washers, dryers, other household appliances, office equipment, containers, and beverage cans, to name a few. It is important to understand the significance of metal rolling in industry today, as well as its integration with other manufacturing processes.