Manufacturing
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# 3.6 Rolling

In rolling (Figure 32), material is passed through the gap between two rotating rollers that squeeze the material as it passes between them. The rolled material emerges with a thickness roughly equal to the gap between the rollers. When the rollers are cylindrical, rolling produces material in the form of plate or sheet. Sheet steel and aluminium for the bodies of cars and domestic appliances is made this way. Rolled sheet is often termed a 'semifinished' product, as it requires further processing to shape it into the final product.

Figure 32 Rolling
Figure 32
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Rolling is not restricted to flat sheets, though. If the desired product has a contoured surface, then by using profiled rollers the contour can be rolled on. If the surface pattern needs to be deeper than is possible during one rolling pass then multiple rollers can be used; for example, railway tracks are made by rolling between pairs of progressively deeper contoured rollers. The various stages for rails are shown in Figure 33.

Figure 33 Stages in rolling railway track
Figure 33
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In common with other forming processes, metals may be hot or cold rolled. The significant differences between hot and cold rolling are in the amount of energy needed to roll a given volume of material and in the resulting microstructures. The cooler the metal, the higher its yield stress and the more energy has to be supplied in order to shape it. As in extrusion, metals in large lumps are often hot rolled at homologous temperatures above 0.6. At this temperature the yield stress and work hardening are reduced. Railway lines require hot rolling in order to achieve the large change in shape from a rectangular bar. However, a major disadvantage of hot rolling is that the surface of the material becomes oxidised by the air, resulting in a poor surface finish.

If the metal is ductile then it may be cold rolled using smaller strains. This has some advantages: the work hardening at these temperatures can give the product a useful increase in strength. During cold rolling, oxidation is reduced and a good surface finish can be produced by using polished rollers. So, cold rolling is a good finishing treatment in the production of plate and sheet. The sheets of steel for car bodies are finished by cold rolling because a good surface finish is essential in this product.

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