All rolling mills should be equipped with an apron to feed and receive the part or strip. The material can be niobium, tantalum, titanium, or aluminum. These rolling mills require very large separating forces and an apron to feed and receive the small pieces at the passline of the rolls.
Expanded metal is used primarily for grating, filtration media, and fencing. Carbon and stainless steels can be perforated with holes or expanded to a diamond shaped pattern, which reduces the surface area.
Another purpose of reducing is to make tapered material. As an example, knives are made from high carbon steel that is heated up red hot and reduced from a thickness of approximately 3/16” to 1/16” by 10” to 48” long.
Four-high rolling mills can be put in tandem, two to seven stands, instead of a reversing mill. They can be equipped with load cells to tell the separating force and hydraulic or mechanical screw downs, depending if it is hot or cold rolling. Sometimes mechanical screw downs are preferred when there is a risk of fire.
