What are the advantages of using hot rolled steel sheets?
- Lower costs
- Less internal stress
- Wide range of use
There are two types of rolled steel sheets—hot rolled steel and cold rolled steel. Each one offers unique advantages for various applications. Optimizing material choices is crucial for any application. That’s why it helps to know that hot rolled steel sheets are much preferred over cold rolled steel sheets. This is due to their improved mechanical properties.
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To help you make an informed decision, we discuss in detail what are hot rolled steel sheets, how they are formed, and what are the advantages of hot rolled steel sheets.
What Are Hot Rolled Steel Sheets?
Many clients often ask our team what hot rolled steel sheets are. But what is important to keep in mind is the term “hot rolled” does not refer to any grade or design of steel. Instead, it refers to how the steel sheet is processed.
Rolling refers to the metal fabrication process that utilizes a series of rollers to change the shape, increase uniformity, and/or improve the mechanical properties of materials. Hot rolled steel sheets have been roll-pressed at a temperature greater than their recrystallization temperature (typically 900°C or 1,700˚F, or greater).
Due to the extreme heat, hot rolled steel sheets display improved workability. Thus, it is easier to form into various shapes and sizes, depending on application requirements.
How Are Hot Rolled Steel Sheets Formed?
The hot rolling process begins with a large, rectangular metal slab called a billet. The billet is first heated and compressed into a roll. While still hot, the billet passes through a set of rollers to achieve the needed dimensions. In hot roll steel sheet production, the rolled steel is repeatedly twisted into coiled rolls and left to cool. Continued rolling creates the desired shape: a metal sheet or profile with a thickness of 3mm or more.
Between hot rolled steel sheets and cold rolled steel sheets, the former holds better advantages because it requires less force to produce—and therefore cuts costs.
Hot rolled steel sheets are easier to produce in larger qualities, thus the lower market price. However, it slightly shrinks during the cooling process. For this reason, the common applications of hot rolled steel sheets include those that pay less attention to precision, such as automobile parts (framing, rims), construction materials (beams, doors, shelving), and railroad components.
Below are the advantages of hot rolled steel sheets:
Lower costs
As mentioned above, it costs less to produce hot rolled steel sheets because the process requires less effort and manpower. Hot rolled steel is easier to form and produce in larger volumes than cold rolled steel. Overall, it is cheaper to produce than its cold rolled counterpart.
Less internal stress
The hot rolling process ends with the steel cooling gradually and on its own, which allows the material to normalize. This way, it releases most if not all internal stresses. As a result, the steel part formed is less prone to cracking or distortion once fully cooled.
Hot rolling changes the steel sheet’s material properties in a way that leads to increased durability and ductility.
Ductility is especially crucial when forming various shapes for your applications. But that’s not to say that hot rolled steel doesn’t distort—in actuality, it distorts very minutely before the process is over, creating slightly trapezoidal shapes rather than perfect right angles. But once the entire process has finished, there are fewer internal factors affecting the material’s constitution, and therefore it’s less likely to break.
Wide range of use
Hot rolled steel sheets come in various sizes and can be manipulated or cut easily, therefore they have many common uses. In particular, steel sheets are used in various construction projects and for industrial purposes. Hot rolled steel is perfect for when the metal required doesn’t have specific dimensions.
The range of applications for hot rolled steel sheets includes bridges, automobiles, ships, high-pressure vessels or equipment, and various tools.
Key Takeaway
We’ve discussed the advantages of hot rolled steel sheets in this article, and we hope you were able to pick up on a thing or two that can influence your decision regarding which type of material to use on your next project.
As we mentioned before, there is no automatically better option between hot or cold rolled steel; the specific usage and context should still make that decision for you.
What are the uses of hot-rolled steel?
- Art and Architecture
- Automotive Engines and Parts
- Agricultural and Mining Equipment
- Bridges and Infrastructure Builds
- Material Handling
- Water Transmission
One of the crucial parts of any metal project is picking out the right materials for — but there are lots of different kinds of metal to choose from. Steel in particular comes in many specifications.
Optimizing your material choice for your application means you have to look closely at how your steel is formed — especially its manufacturing process. If you’ve been researching steel choices for a while, then you may have considered hot-rolled steel as an option. But what is it, and what are the uses of hot-rolled steel?
What is Hot-Rolled Steel?
Our customers often ask us what our hot-rolled steel products are. What you need to know is that the term “hot-rolled” isn’t exactly a grade or product specification of steel. Instead, it refers to how these metals were processed in the milling stage.
Contact us to discuss your requirements of HRS Steel Sheet. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.
Hot-rolled steel is steel pieces that have been roll-pressed at extremely high temperatures. Most operations process these pieces at well over 900°C (or 1,700˚F), which is over the recrystallization temperature for most kinds of steel.
Heating and rolling these pieces at these temperatures makes the piece easier to form, which means that hot-rolled steel is much easier to work with.
How is Hot-Rolled Steel Different from Cold-Rolled Steel?
With hot-rolling, there is a manufacturing counterpart: cold-rolled steel, which you might have seen mentioned in your material selection research.
Cold-rolling is much like hot-rolling in that the processes are done at a specific temperature. In this case, it is done at or near room temperature. Steels of different grades, metallurgical composition, and performance ratings can be either hot-rolled or cold-rolled.
The difference between the two is the cost-effectiveness and applicability. Hot-rolling is the more common choice for manufacturers because it requires less force and energy to use, which means the process is more cost-effective for many applications. Hot-rolling is typically used in compressive forming methods like rolling, metal extrusion, forging, and the like.
However, hot-rolled steel does, of course, heat the piece significantly. What ends up happening is that when the piece cools off, it tends to shrink slightly. This means there is less control over the final size and shape of the hot-rolled steel piece, compared to cold-rolled steel.
What are the Properties of Hot-Rolled Steel?
The heating and rolling process used to make hot-rolled steel affects the metal’s properties. Heating it at temperatures beyond the recrystallization stage, and then cooling it at room temperature causes a change called “normalization.” In it, the steel’s microstructures shift, resulting in improved toughness and ductility. These changes are key to the metal’s easy forming characteristics.
Hot rolling can also affect the overall shape and size of the steel piece. Hot-rolled steel can be made much larger than cold-rolling. Hot-rolled steel pieces also tend to have an uneven surface, however, this is easily removed through grinding, sandblasting, or acid-bath pickling. Once the surface has been smoothed out, various finishes can be applied.
What are the Uses of Hot-Rolled Steel?
Thanks to its improved ductility and toughness, hot-rolled steel products can be easily shaped into nearly any form you can imagine. Hot-rolled steel is amongst the most diverse steel products in the industry.
However, hot-rolled steel is best used in applications where precise, complex geometries and strict tolerances are not needed, such as:
Art and Architecture
Hot-rolled steel, once it has been fully processed and its surface has been smoothed, can be finished with all kinds of different methods. Hot-rolled steel in general also presents a unique finish — it has varying colors along the surface, which gives this kind of steel a lot of character. Because of this, it is the ideal material for artistic applications and structures, such as metal sculptures.
Architects also favor hot-rolled steel for certain architectural designs. It is aesthetically appealing in industrial and modern settings. Hot-rolled steel can be used to make light poles, racking, shelving, railing, fences, and more.
Automotive Engines and Parts
Hot-rolled steel can be used in the automotive industry and is typically used to make vehicle frames (a.k.a. the chassis), engine components, and seat frames.
In these cases, hot-rolled steel needs further processing to withstand the corrosion and heat typical in automotive applications. This process is known as pickle and oiling (P&O), which is used to improve rust resistance and has the added benefit of allowing for painting.
Agricultural and Mining Equipment
This kind of steel is also used widely in agricultural and mining equipment, due to its improved strength and formability. This allows manufacturers to make anything from simple bends to complex draws using hot-rolled steel.
Generally, you can find hot-rolled steel being used in the manufacturing of equipment like harvesters and tractors. They are also commonly used to make engine components and grouser bars.
Bridges and Infrastructure Builds
Hot-rolled steel’s strength and capability to be formed in large format pieces make it a great option for projects concerning infrastructure builds, such as bridges. Hot-rolled steel is frequently used to make structural sections, as well as components like grid decking and expansion joints.
Material Handling
Manufacturers prefer to use hot-rolled steel for certain material handling applications, such as components for fork trucks, trams, cranes, and elevators. This type of steel is typically used to make frames, rails, joint bars, and more.
Water Transmission
Hot-rolled steel is also ideal for water transmission applications, such as making pipes and tubes. Hot-rolled steel can also be used for manufacturing additional components, like pipe couplings and spigot sections.
Key Takeaway
Depending on your metal project or application, the different types of steel will provide a different set of benefits and drawbacks. When it comes to hot-rolled steel and its uses, you can see that this material can be used as a building block for a wide variety of structural, industrial, and commercial applications.
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