Rolling of Metals

Rolling of Metals
• Rolling – reducing the thickness or changing the
cross-section of a long workpiece by compressive
forces applied through a set of rolls
• Accounts for 90% of all metals produced by metal
working processes
• Often carried out at elevated temperatures first (hot
rolling) to change coarse-grained, brittle, and porous
ingot structures to wrought structures with finer
grain sizes and enhanced properties
 Rolled Metal Thicknesses
 Plates – thickness greater than 6 mm (1/4 inch);
 boiler supports (0.3 m, 12 inch)
 reactor vessels (150 mm, 6 inch)
 battleships and tanks (100-125 mm, 4-5 inch)
 Sheets – less than 6 mm thick; flat pieces, strips, and coils for
beverage containers, automobile and aircraft bodies,
appliances, kitchen and office equipment
 Boeing 747 skin thickness – 1.8 mm (0.071 inch)
 Lockheed L1011 skin thickness – 1.9 mm (0.075 inch)
 Aluminum beverage cans – start as sheets that are 0.28 mm (0.011
inch) thick; later reduced to 0.1 mm (0.004 inch) by deep drawing
 Aluminum foil – 0.008 mm (0.0003 inch)
 Type of Rolling
• Hot rolling:
– Hot rolling is a metalworking process that occurs above the
recrystallization temperature of the material.
– The starting material is usually large pieces of metal, like semi-finished
casting products, such as slabs, blooms, and billets.
– Hot rolling is used mainly to produce sheet metal or simple cross
sections, such as rail tracks. Other typical uses for hot rolled metal
includes truck frames, automotive wheels, pipe and tubular, water
heaters, agriculture equipment, strappings, stampings, compressor
shells, railcar components, wheel rims, metal buildings, railroad-
hopper cars, doors, shelving, discs, guard rails, automotive clutch
plates.
 Type of Rolling
• Cold rolling:
– Cold rolling occurs with the metal below its recrystallization
temperature (usually at room temperature).
– It increases the strength via strain hardening up to 20%. It also
improves the surface finish and holds tighter tolerances.
– Typical uses for cold rolled steel include metal furniture, desks, filing
cabinets, shelves, tables, chairs, motorcycle exhaust pipes, computer
cabinet and hardware, all home appliances and components, shelving,
lighting fixtures, hinges, tubing, steel drums, lawn movers, electronic
cabinetry, lighting fixtures, water heaters, metal containers, and a
variety of construction related products.
Flat-Rolling and Shape-Rolling
Processes
 Flat-Rolling Process

• Initial thickness ho • Surface speed of rolls Vr

• Final thickness hf • Entry velocity of strip Vo
• Roll gap L • Final velocity of the strip Vf
Bending of Rolls
• Reduce rolling forces
by
– Reducing friction
– Using smaller diameter
rolls to reduce the contact
area
– Taking smaller reductions
per pass (also to reduce
the contact area)
– Rolling at elevated
temperatures to lower the
strength of the material
– Apply longitudinal tension
to the strip during rolling
– back tension on the pay-
off reel or front tension
on the take-up reel
 Bending of Rolls
• Grind rolls with a camber to prevent crowning
of the rolled strip
• Radius of maximum camber point generally
0.25 mm greater than at roll edges
• Simulate camber by bending the rolls with
applied moments
 Effects of Hot Rolling

• Changes in the grain structure of cast or of large-grain wrought metals

during hot rolling.
• Hot rolling is an effective way to reduce grain size in metals for improved
strength and ductility.
• Cast structures of ingots or continuous castings are converted to a wrought
structure by hot working.
 Roller Leveling

• (a) A method of roller leveling to flatten rolled sheets.

• (b) Roller leveling to straighten drawn bars.
• Leveling rolls to increase flatness after previous rolling
operations
Defects in Flat Rolling

Schematic illustration
of typical defects in flat
rolling: (a) wavy
edges; (b) zipper
cracks in the center of
the strip; (c) edge
cracks; and (d)
alligatoring.
 Defects in Flat Rolling
• Lamination: small cracks appear when
reduction in thickness is quite high
• Edge cracking: this defect is caused either due
to low ductility of the work material or
because of uneven deformation near the
ends.
• Alligatoring: alligatoring is splitting of
workpiece along a horizontal plane on the exit
side.
 Ring-Rolling

• Ring rolling is a specialized type of hot rolling that increases the diameter of
a ring.
• The starting material is a thick-walled ring.
• This workpiece is placed between two rolls anidler roll, while another roll,
called the driven roll, presses the ring from the outside.
Thread-Rolling Processes
 Thread-Rolling Processes
• Thread rolling is a metal rolling process used extensively in
manufacturing industry to produce screws, bolts and other
fasteners.
• A common thread rolling process, used in industry to
manufacture threaded parts, involves forming the threads
into the metal of a blank by a pressing and rolling action
between two die.
• The die surfaces hold the shape and the force of the action
forms the threads into the material.
• Thread rolling, in modern manufacturing, has an extremely
high productivity rate.
 Machined and Rolled Threads

• Machining is the alternative method to industrial

manufacturing of threaded parts.
• Forming will harden the metal through cold working, does not
waste material by cutting, and produces a favourable grain
structure to strengthen the part with respect to its function.
Shape Rolling of an H-section part
 Shape Rolling of an H-section part
• Shape rolling is a broad term for a range of metal
rolling operations, that involve forming the work with
rolls of a certain geometry.
• Designing a proper series of shape changes in a work
will involve more deformation in some areas than
others.
• Excessive shape change in some parts of the cross
section is a serious cause of defects in shape rolling
production.
 Roll-Forging

• Roll forging or roll forming is a forging technique that utilizes

opposing rolls to shape a metal part.
• Roll forging uses rolls in order to accomplish the deformation of
the material.
 Production of Steel Balls

• Production of steel balls by the skew-rolling process.

• (b) Production of steel balls by upsetting a cylindrical blank.
Note the formation of flash.
• The balls made by these processes subsequently are ground
and polished for use in ball bearings.
 Cavity Formation in Bar

• Cavity formation in a solid, round bar and its utilization in the

rotary tube-piercing process for making seamless pipe and
tubing.
Various Tube-Rolling Processes
 Various Tube-Rolling Processes
• Schematic illustration of various tube-rolling processes:
• (a) with a fixed mandrel;
• (b) with a floating mandrel;
• (c) without a mandrel; and
• (d) pilger rolling over a mandrel and a pair of shaped rolls.

• Tube diameters and thicknesses also can be changed by other

processes, such as drawing, extrusion, and spinning.
 Rolling Mill

• A general view of a rolling mill. Source: Courtesy of Ispat

 Rolling Mill
• A rolling mill, also known as a reduction mill or mill, has a common
construction independent of the specific type of rolling being performed:
• Work rolls
• Backup rolls - are intended to provide rigid support required by the working rolls to
prevent bending under the rolling load
• Rolling balance system - to ensure that the upper work and back up rolls are
maintained in proper position relative to lower rolls
• Roll changing devices - use of an overhead crane and a unit designed to attach to
the neck of the roll to be removed from or inserted into the mill.
• Mill protection devices - to ensure that forces applied to the backup roll chocks are
not of such a magnitude to fracture the roll necks or damage the mill housing
• Roll cooling and lubrication systems
• Pinions - gears to divide power between the two spindles, rotating them at the
same speed but in different directions
• Drive motors - rolling narrow foil product to thousands of horsepower
 Commercial rolling mill

• (a)
Tandem-Rolling
 Tandem-Rolling

An example of a tandem-rolling operation.

 Tandem-Rolling
• A tandem mill is a special type of modern rolling mill where
rolling is done in one pass.
• In a traditional rolling mill rolling is done in several passes, but
in tandem mill there are several stands (>=2 stands) and
reductions take place successively.
• The number of stands ranges from 2 to 18.
• Tandem mills can be either of hot or cold rolling mill types.