Ain Shams University

Faculty of Engineering
Design & Production department

Production Engineering
3rd Year Mechanical

Manufacturing Technology
Report (1)
Rolling

Presented to : Dr. Hala Abd Al Hakim .

: Eng. Mahmoud Zakareia .
Prepared by : Mohamed Sayed Saber Allamy .
Sec: 2 .
Year : 3rd year Mechanical Department .

Index :
1. Principles Of Metal Rolling .
2. Front & Back tensions effect .
3. Spreading In Metal Rolling .
4. Grain Structure In Metal Rolling .
5. Rolls For Metal Rolling .
6. Roll Deflections .
7. Defects In Metal Rolling .
8. Rolling Mills Types .

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 .

Principles Of Metal Rolling

Most metal rolling operations are similar in that the work material is plastically
deformed by compressive forces between two constantly spinning rolls. These forces
act to reduce the thickness of the metal and affect its grain structure. The reduction in
thickness can be measured by the difference in thickness before and after the
reduction, this value is called thedraft. In addition to reducing the thickness of the
work, the rolls also act to feed the material as they spin in opposite directions to each
other. Friction is therefore a necessary part of the rolling operation, but too much
friction can be detrimental for a variety of reasons. It is essential that in a metal rolling
process the level of friction between the rolls and work material is controlled,
lubricants can help with this. A basic flat rolling operation is shown in figure:130, this
manufacturing process is being used to reduce the thickness of a work piece

During a metal rolling operation, the

geometric shape of the work is
changed but its volume remains
essentially the same. The roll zone is
the area over which the rolls act on the
material, it is here that plastic
deformation of the work occurs. An
important factor in metal rolling is that
due to the conservation of the volume
of the material with the reduction in
thickness, the metal exiting the roll
zone will be moving faster than the
metal entering the roll zone. The rolls
themselves rotate at a constant speed,
hence at some point in the roll zone
the surface velocity of the rolls and
that of the material are exactly the
same. This is termed the no slip point. Before this point the rolls are moving faster
than the material, after this point the material is moving faster than the rolls.

Front & Back tensions :

Sometimes in metal rolling practice,
tension, (force), is applied to a work
piece as it is being rolled. This
tension may be applied to the front,
(front tension), the back, (back
tension), or both sides. This
technique will assist the forces
necessary to form the work, and is
usually used on hard to roll
materials.

Spreading In Metal Rolling

In metal rolling operations, the plastic deformation causing a reduction in thickness
will also cause an increase in the width of the part, this is called spreading.
When the work being processed has
a high width to thickness ratio, the
increase in width is relatively small
and usually of no concern in
industrial manufacturing practice.
In cases of low width to thickness
ratios, such as a bar with a square
cross section, spreading can be an
issue. Vertical rolls can be
employed to edge the work and
maintain a constant width.

Grain Structure In Metal Rolling

In common industrial manufacturing industry, the ingot or continuous casting is hot
rolled into a bloom or slab. In addition to producing a useful shape for further
processing, the hot rolling process converts the cast grain structure into a wrought
grain structure. The initial cast material will possess a non uniform grain structure,
typically large columnar grains that grow in the direction of solidification. These
structures are usually brittle with weak grain boundaries. Cast structure
characteristically contains many defects such as porosity caused by gases, shrinkage
cavities, and solid inclusions of foreign material that becomes trapped in the metal,
such as metallic oxides.
Rolling a metal above its recrystallization temperature breaks apart the old grain
structure and reforms a new one. Grain boundaries are destroyed and new tougher
ones are formed, along with a more uniform grain structure. Metal rolling pushes
material, closing up vacancies and cavities within the metal. In addition, hot rolling
breaks up inclusions and distributes their material throughout the work.

It should be apparent that the advantages of metal forming are not just in the creation
of useful geometric forms but also in the creation of desired material properties as
well. Cold rolling processes as discussed earlier, are useful for imparting strength and
favorable grain orientation. Since metal rolling affects grain orientation, a part can be
rolled in a way as to create grains oriented in a direction such that they give
directional strength to a part useful to that part's specific application. An example of
this can be the difference in grain structure between the threads of a machined bolt
and a rolled bolt. The favorable grain orientation of the cold rolled bolt will give it
directional strength beneficial to its application.

Rolls For Metal Rolling

Metal rolling manufacturing can produce a wide range of different products. The
width of rolled work can be as much as several meters, or narrower than a thousandth
of an inch. Metal rolling manufacture also creates rolled work over a wide range of
thicknesses. Metal plates for some boilers may be rolled to a thickness of 12 inches,
while foil for wrapping cigarettes and candy can be .0003 inches thick. Rolls used in
metal rolling are of various sizes and geometries. In flat rolling processes, during
industrial manufacture, the rolls may typically be 24 to 54 inches in diameter. In some
metal rolling operations, in the forming of very thin work, the rolls can be as small as
1/4 inch.
Rolls are subject to extreme operating conditions during the metal rolling process.
Conditions include, tremendous forces, bending moments, thermal stresses, and wear.
Roll materials are selected for strength, rigidity, and wear resistance. Roll materials
vary dependent upon the specific metal rolling process.
Common roll materials are cast iron, cast steel, and forged steel. Forged rolls
are stronger and more rigid than cast rolls but are more difficult to manufacture.
In industrial metal manufacturing processes, rolls are commonly made from
nickel steel or molybdenum steel alloys. With metal rolling operations of certain
materials, rolls made of tungsten carbide can provide extreme resistance to
deflection.

Roll Deflections
Strength and rigidity are important characteristics of the rolls used to form product in
metal rolling manufacture. The particular attributes of the rolls will affect dimensional
accuracy as well as other factors in the operation. During the rolling process great
forces act upon the rolls. Rolls will be subject to different degrees of deflection. In
any particular metal rolling process, it is important to understand how these
deflections will affect the rolls and hence the work being rolled. The rolls initially
start out flat. During a basic flat rolling operation, it can be observed that the work
material will exert greater force on the rolls towards the center of the material than at
its edges. This will cause the rolls to deflect more at the center, and hence gives the
work a greater thickness in the middle.

To solve this problem in industrial metal rolling manufacture, the rolls are often
ground so that they are thicker towards the center in such a way as to exactly offset
the deflection that will occur during the process. This extra thickness is called camber.
Figure:138

The camber that must be ground into a roll is very specific to a particular work width,
material, and force load. A roll must usually be manufactured for only one metal
rolling process. In some industrial metal rolling processes, rolls are given temporary
camber by applying forces through their bearings. Another way that rolls deflect is by
the shortening of their radius along the contact of the work. In other words, they
flatten like a tire on a car might. This type of deflection is important to consider in
manufacturing practice, as it will affect roll radius calculations and friction.

Defects In Metal Rolling

A wide variety of defects are possible in metal rolling
manufacture. Surface defects commonly occur due to
impurities in the material, scale, rust, or dirt.
Adequate surface preparation prior to the metal
rolling operation can help avoid these. Most serious
internal defects are caused by improper material
distribution in the final product. Defects such as edge
cracks, center cracks, and wavy edges, are all
common with this method of metal manufacturing.

Often times a sheet is not defective, it is just not flat enough. In

sheet metal industrial practice, a sheet may be passed through a
series of leveling rolls that flex the sheet in opposite directions to
flatten it. Another interesting defect that can occur in flat rolling is
alligatoring, where the work being rolled actually splits in two
during the process. The two parts of the work material travel in
opposite directions relative to their respective rolls.

In shape rolling manufacture, a work piece will often experience

different amounts of reduction in different areas of its cross
section. One of the goals of roll pass design is to properly design
a series of reductions in such a way as to mitigate the relative
differences in shape change between areas, in order to avoid
material defects. Improper reductions of the product can cause
warping or cracking of the material. Metal rolling practice is not
always the cause of warping or cracking, sometimes defects in
the metal being rolled may be the reason.

Rolling Mills Types

Three High Mills