WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HOT ROLLED STEEL AND COLD ROLLED STEEL?
Hot rolled, cold rolled, cold drawn, cold finished? A lot of similar words you may hear, but what are they and what’s the difference? Many people call into Clifton Steel asking our veteran sales staff these very same questions. In short, the difference between hot rolled steel and cold rolled steel is the processing temperature. Hot rolled steel is, you guessed it, processed at a hot (semi-molten state) temperature. Cold Rolled steel starts with hot rolled steel and is further refined by processing at room temperature. HOT ROLLED STEEL The nice thing about steel is that it’s a fairly logical commodity. The names commonly used in the industry tend to tell users how it was made. Hot rolled steel is a prime example. As we said above, hot rolled steel is manufactured in a semi-molten state, which allows it to be formed into many different shapes. The term hot rolled can be used to refer anything from bar stock to sheet and plate. It means that the process used...