Hot rolling is a process that steel producers perform on a slab or billet of steel. The slab or billet is heated and then passed through roughing stands that squeeze the hot steel into thinner and longer shapes, either sheets or bars. All steel products are hot rolled as part of the production process. The sheets are coiled, the bars are cut and these products may be shipped to service centers for even further processing.

Galvanizing is placing a corrosion-resistant zinc coat on the steel. Galvanized steel is used in: automotive parts like quarter panels, door inners and outers, rocker panels, trunk lids, underbody parts, and mufflers; roofing and siding; air ducts and heating and air conditioning equipment; switch boxes; chimney flues; awnings; garbage cans; culverts; refrigerators and other household appliances. Steel is galvanized through two methods: Hot-dipped: the sheet of steel is passed through a molten bath of material, typically lead or zinc. Electrogalvanized: the sheet of steel passes through a series of electrolytic cells that contain a zinc solution. The electrical current that passes through the cell forces zinc to attach to the steel.

Cold rolling reduces the thickness and improves the surface quality of the steel. Typically, the steel that a producer hot-rolls can only be reduced to 0.25 inch in thickness. Cold rolling can further process the steel down to requirements as low as 0.001 inch thick. The finish look of the cold rolled steel is determined by the "work-rolls" that actually roll the steel. If the work-roll is rough, the finish is dull, while smooth work-rolls produce a bright finish. Cold rolled sheet is typically the base material for coated steels, such as galvanized, electro-galvanized, galvalume and pre-painted steels. The main markets are automotive, appliance, metal furniture and metal buildings, including residential construction. Cold rolled strip is the base material for many industrial products, such as transmission clutch plates, seatbelts, and tractor parts. Consumer products that utilize cold rolled strip include saw blades, golf shafts and decorator trim.

old rolling is a process that is performed at room temperature on hot rolled sheets.

During the process of cold rolling, strains are placed on the grain of the steel, which hardens the steel, making it more brittle and more breakable. In order to relax the strains placed on the steel and "recrystallize" the grain of the steel, it can be heated to a certain temperature until the strains are relaxed and the steel is softer. This heat treatment is annealing. There are two main types of annealing: Continuous annealing: a continuous sheet of steel is transported through an area of reducing atmosphere, which is heated to 550-800 degrees Fahrenheit and the anneal is completed in minutes Box annealing: a steel coil or coils are placed in a box or cylindrical oven, which is gradually heated up using nitrogen or hydrogen gas so that the steel doesn't rust. Nitrogen annealing takes up to a week to perform, while hydrogen annealing takes about half that time.

Blanking is cutting the steel sheets into specific shapes. The shapes can vary from the outline of a car doorframe to simple circle and square cutouts. First stage blanks are the most critical because they must conform to exacting requirements. Because excess steel is cut away, all that remains is for a stamper to stamp the piece into a 3-dimensional shape.

This process involves uncoiling a section of steel and cutting the steel latitudinally to the desired length.

Slitting is cutting the sheets of steel into narrower strips.

Pickling is basically the cleaning of steel using an acid of some type, typically hydrochloric acid. When a hot rolled coil cools, rust forms on the unprotected metal and when coils are transported or stored they are exposed to air and water. Pickling removes the rust, dirt and oil from the surface.

Leveling is a process to flatten shape deficiencies such as wavy edges and buckles in a sheet of steel.

Cold finishing is processing done to hot rolled bars in the cold state to improve the surface finish, dimensional accuracy, machinability or mechanical properties. Cold finished bars fall into three categories: Cold drawn bars are de-scaled, pulled through a die, straightened and cut to length. Cold drawing gives the bar a bright, clean, uniform surface and increases the strength. Turned and polished bars have the surface layer removed, are rotated through rollers that straighten and polish the bar and are cut to length. Ground and polished bars are cold drawn or turned bars ground to close tolerances and kept very straight. They are polished to a brilliant, bright finish, resulting in bars with extremely close size tolerance, a high degree of straightness and a superior finish.

Tempering is a carefully controlled cold rolling process that improves the flatness, produces the final finish or texture and develops the required mechanical properties.

Steel can be classified in several different ways, including: chemical composition, finishing methods (i.e., hot rolling or cold rolling), product form (i.e., bar, plate, sheet, strip, tubing, structural shape), microstructure (ferritic, martensitic), heat treatment (i.e., annealed) or quality descriptors (i.e., merchant quality, commercial quality). Chemical composition is the most widely used basis for classification. Alloy Steel is steel containing substantial quantities of nickel, chromium, silicon, manganese, tungsten, molybdenum and vanadium to increase hardness, strength or chemical resistance.

High Carbon Steel is steel with more than 0.3% carbon. The more carbon that is dissolved in the iron, the less formable and the tougher the steel becomes. The hardness of high-carbon steel makes it suitable for plow blades, shovels, cutting edges and high-wear applications.

Low Carbon Steel is steel with less than 0.005% carbon and is more malleable so it is capable of being rolled thin. Typically used in automotive body applications.

Tool Steel is any high carbon or alloy steel that can be used for cutting, shaping, forming and blanking steels and other materials. They have additional applications in which strength, toughness, and resistance to wear are required.

Stainless Steel is steel containing more than 10% chromium, with or without other alloys. Stainless steel resists corrosion and is used widely in items such as automotive and food processing products, as well as medical and health equipment.

In the steel service center industry, steel is commonly grouped by product form:

Thickness in inches Width in Inches

Thickness in Inches	Width in Inches
	0 to 6"	6-8"	8-12"	12-48"	Over 48"
0.23 +	Bar	Bar	Plate	Plate	Plate
0.2299-0.2040	Bar	Strip	Strip	Sheet	Plate
0.2039-0.1800	Strip	Strip	Strip	Sheet	Plate
0.1799-0.0449	Strip	Strip	Strip	Sheet	Sheet

Grade is the chemical specification of the steel. In the steel industry, there are associations and institutes that have written specifications for steel producers and have brought standardization to steel making and steel buying. The grade of steel is usually assigned by AISI (American Iron and Steel Institute) or SAE (Society for Automotive Engineering) using a numeric indexing system, such as 1050 or 1010.

Austenitic is a term used to describe grades of stainless steel that have chromium (18-30%) and nickel (6-20%) as their major alloys. These grades are usually non-magnetic and are used for pots and pans, kitchen utensils, brewery tanks, sinks, wheel covers, and hypodermic needles.

Martensitic is a term used to describe grades of stainless steel that have chromium (11-17%) as the sole major alloy. Carbon is added in to enable the material to be hardened by heat treatment. Martensitic stainless steels are magnetic. Martensitic stainless is used in steam turbines, jet engines, cutlery, gears, valve parts, petroleum and petrochemical equipment, medical instruments, scissors and bearings.

Both are hollow pieces of steel. Pipe is a standard product, produced to standard size ranges, dimensions and lengths. Pipe is a carrier for gases or liquids, such as oil, fuel, air, water and steam. Tubing is a specialty product, produced to actual outside or inside diameters, a variety of wall thicknesses, and close dimensional tolerances. Tubing is a construction material used in the manufacture of a wide variety of products, such as bicycles, cylinders, furniture, golf clubs, farm machinery, and auto transmission parts.

Long products are steel products such as bars, channels, tube and structural shapes.

Structural shapes are rolled flanged shapes, having at least one dimension of the cross section three inches or greater. Beams, channels, angles and tees are examples of structural shapes. Structural shapes are used in buildings as beams, columns and stringers; in railroad car building for center and slide sills; in ship building for ribs and stiffeners; in the machine building industry for machine bases, skids and booms. Other applications of structural shapes include: motor homes, cranes, derricks, large trucks and trailers, and earth-moving equipment.

The number of end uses for steel bars is mind boggling. They are used in bridges, buildings, ships, agricultural machinery, road building equipment, railway equipment, general machinery, basketball hoops, signposts, bed frames and more.