Hot Rolled Strip Steel: AIST Steel Manufacturing Process

Hot rolled strip is the flat product of the hot strip mill from rolling slabs into hot rolled coils (HRC). The slab is reheated to the pre-determined rolling temperature necessary to achieve the strip's final properties. Following the descaler, where the iron oxide mill scale is blasted off with high pressure water, the slab enters a series of roughing mills to begin the breakdown of the internal structure of the steel slab and reduces the slabs thickness to less than 1 inch (25.4 mm). Following the roughing mills, the strip runs down to a series of finishing mills where the thickness is further reduced to the final thickness (gauge) as specified by the customer. The steel is then cooled via water sprays to quench the steel's crystalline structure and grain size before the strip is coiled and strapped.

Finished hot rolled strip can either be sold as hot rolled band or sent to be pickled and oiled and cold rolled.

This video is the result of a collaboration between the Association for Iron & Steel Technology (AIST) and Purdue University Calumet’s Center for Innovation Through Visualization and Simulation (CIVS) with contributions from the Colorado School of Mines’ Advanced Steel Processing and Products Research Center (CSM-ASPPRC).Visit AIST.org/Resources for more information.