Steel Rolling: Plate, Sheet and Coil

Mills turn steel slabs into plate, sheet and coil by rolling: the hot slab is squeezed between rolls, thinner each pass; plate is cut off thick, strip is rolled on down and wound into a coil. Coils are then cleaned of scale and cold-rolled thinner and smoother, annealed soft again, and wound back into coils for stamping presses and fabricators. Over about 6 mm is plate, under is sheet. The hand-hammered plate blueprint does the same job by hand at a tiny scale.