We’re one of Utah’s top steel suppliers at Wasatch Steel, and we’re here to provide you with all the custom steel you need to complete your next project. Steel sheets of all shapes and sizes are some of our most popular products, and we provide them at industry standard quality.
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There are dozens of different styles and variations of steel sheets. One of the most common ways to classify them is by the temperature at which they were rolled – cold rolled or hot rolled. Let’s look at the pros and cons of cold rolled steel for your next project.
What is It?
When steel is rolled out to form a coil during its production, this is done at varying degrees of temperature. In all cases where this temperature is considered at or below the room temperature, this is considered cold rolled steel.
Cold rolled steel will be smooth to the touch, strong and not particularly flexible. It’s generally found in flat, square or round shapes.
Pros
There are a couple distinct benefits to cold rolled steel:
Cons
If you want to learn more, please visit our website Cold Rolled Steel Supplier.
There are also a couple downsides to cold rolled steel for some people:
Not all steelmaking processes involve heating steel to or above its recrystallization temperature. Cold rolling, for example, is performed at room temperature. Not surprisingly, it requires greater pressure to roll and form steel at room temperature. Because cold-rolled steel is manipulated well below the recrystallization temperature of steel, however, it offers several benefits. Below are some of the top benefits of cold-rolled steel.
Cold-rolled steel is significantly stronger than hot-rolled steel. As the rollers compress the steel at room temperature, the steel becomes stronger due to strain hardening. Just how strong is cold-rolled steel exactly? Although there are exceptions, cold-rolled steel is typically about 20% stronger than its hot-rolled counterpart.
In addition to being stronger, cold-rolled steel has an improved surface finish. It’s smoother and has fewer surface imperfections than hot-rolled steel. Not only does this improve the aesthetics of cold-rolled steel; it makes cold-rolled steel a more suitable material for certain applications, such as the construction of bridges.
Cold rolling allows for tighter tolerances than hot rolling. What does this mean exactly? In metalworking, the term “tolerance” refers to the overall thickness of metal. Cold-rolled steel is typically thinner — without sacrificing strength — than hot-rolled steel. As a result, cold rolling offers tighter tolerances than aren’t found in other steelmaking processes.
There are several different options available for creating cold-rolled steel, some of which include full-hard, half-hard, quarter-hard and skin-rolled. Of all those options, full-hard cold rolling is often preferred because it offers the tightest tolerances. When performed correctly, full-hard cold rolling can reduce the thickness of steel by up to 50%. Other cold rolling processes can also reduce the thickness of steel, but they aren’t as effective as full-hard cold rolling.
As you can see, cold-rolled steel offers several benefits, some of which include increased strength, improved surface finish, tighter tolerances and multiple options. But there are still a few disadvantages associated with cold-rolled steel. When compared to hot-rolled steel, cold-rolled steel typically costs more money to produce. For many metalworking companies, this makes hot rolling a more attractive process.