GLOSSARY
A
Aircraft Quality Alloy Steel - usually 4130 alloy strip produced to AMS specifications
Alloy - metallic or non-metallic elements added to base metals to modify its properties
Alloy Strip Steel - steel with one or more additional elements for customizing specific properties
Aluminum-Killed - steel with aluminum added to deoxidize and refine grain size
Annealing - heating and cooling cycles to soften strip steel for rerolling or forming into parts
ACRSS - the Association of Cold Rolled Specialty Steel, a Trade Association that oversees U. S. specialty steel and strip producers and service centers.
B
Batch Annealing - annealing performed in strip steel coils using bell furnaces
Belleville Disc Springs - alloy steel formed into a conical disc that can be engineered to compress at a specific load. Belleville springs can be used alone or stacked in multiples for specifically-designed applications. BelleFlex Technologies, a subsidiary of Blair, produces Belleville springs in Freeport, Pennsylvania.
Blast Furnace - where iron ore, coke and limestone are super-heated to create liquid iron
BOF - Basic Oxygen Furnace - a huge vessel where iron and scrap is converted into molten steel
Burr - the sharp, extended edge of a steel strip created by slitting or blanking operations
Butt Welding - the joining of two strip edges end-to-end, usually with electric resistance
C
Cold Rolling - reduction of flatrolled steel by passing hot rolled coils between one or more sets of rolls
Cold Working - any type of strain hardening that increases hardness, ductility, strength and temper
Continuous Casting - a production unit that transforms molten steel into a continuous slab
Crown - flatrolled strip with a greater thickness along the centerline than at the edges
Cut Lengths - flatrolled steel sheared from coils to a specified length and stacked on skids
D
Dead Soft Temper - flatrolled steel that has been annealed last to provide the lowest hardness
Deburring - an edging operation that has removed the burr from a slit strip edge
Deoxidation - process to remove or tie up oxygen molecules in molten steel production
Drawing Quality - flatrolled steel processed to enhance the ability to stretch and form
Ductility - elongation property of steel that resists fracturing during deformation
E
EAF - Electric Arc Furnace - a huge vessel where steel scrap is recycled into new molten steel
Edges - the strip edge, naturally rounded, often slit, sometimes deburred, rolled or skived
Electromagnetic Iron - specially processed, ultra-low carbon strip used in relay and switch applications
Elongation - the amount a sample of steel will stretch before breaking, reported as a percentage
F
Face - the total width of an oscillate-wound coil
Fineblank - a highly-engineered, near net-shape method of metal stamping typically using heavy gauge strip
Fineblanking Quality Steel (FBQ) - strip steel produced with enhanced extrusion characteristics and uniformity
Finish - the surface topography of flatrolled strip: light matte, matte, regular bright, etc.
Flattening - leveling operation of steel strip through a unit housing a series of small diameter rolls
Full Hard Temper - flatrolled steel that is rolled hard last for parts that require high hardness, stiffness
G
Gauge - a numerical designation or decimal measure of thickness in flatrolled steels
Gauge-Corrected - flatrolled steel with a light rolling to improve thickness tolerances
Grain Size - the relative size of individual, microscropic crystals of steel
H
Half Hard Temper - flatrolled steel of intermediate hardness, between hard and soft tempers
Hardness - the measure of steel's resistance to permanent deformation by a penetrator
Heat - the volume of molten steel in one production lot of a BOF or an EAF vessel
Heat Treatment - thermal process to increase hardness, usually to high carbon or alloy finished parts
Heavy Gauge Strip Steel - typically thicker than .250", with precision tolerances or custom properties
High Carbon Steel - grades with .25% carbon or more, usually for parts to be heat treated
High Strength Low Alloy - low carbon steel with microalloying elements for minimum strength values
Hot Rolled Strip - slabs heated and rolled into hot coiled bands of flatrolled steel
Hydroforming - a strip steel metalforming technique using fluid pressure and dies
I
ID Core - a steel or fiber board liner on the inside diameter of an oscillated coil
Inclusions - non-metallic, often undesirable impurities retained in steel during solidfication
K
Killed Steel - steel deoxidized with aluminum or silicon to reduce gas content and refine grain size
L
Ladle or Heat Analysis - chemical analysis taken for each BOF or EAF heat or production lot
Low Carbon Steel - grades with less than .25% carbon, usually for formed parts
M
Macro Etch - acid-etching a steel sample to enhance viewing its macrostructure
Matte Finish - a specified roughened or textured surface on flatrolled steel
Metallography - the study of various steel microstructures as seen through a microscope
Metallurgy - the study of metals and alloys, their production, properties and applications
Microcleanliness - describes the extent and morphology of non-metallic inclusions
Microstructure - the crystalline constituents of steel observed through a microscope
Mill Edge - the naturally rounded edge of a flatrolled strip produced by rolling on a mill
N
Normalized Structure - a high temperature heat treatment to return steel crystals to their normal state
O
One Pass Steel - typically hot rolled steel with a minimal cold reduction pass on a rolling mill
Oscillate-Winding - coiling narrow widths in a traverse fashion, much like a fishing reel
P
Pawl Steel - ultra-heavy alloy strip steel used to make auto transmission parking pawls
Pickling - passing steel through an acid bath to remove hot mill scale and oxide from the surface
Profilometer - a tool used in the measurement of relative surface roughness, peak to valley
Q
Quarter Hard Temper - soft flatrolled steel lightly rolled to moderately increase hardness
R
Residual Elements - non-essential, incidental elements found in trace amounts in steel
Reversing Cold Mill - a single-stand mill that performs multiple pass reductions, back and forth
Rockwell - a standard method and numerical scale used to measure hardness in metals
Roll Forming - continuous metal forming method using a series of engineered rolls
S
Shear - a steel cutting operation performed by a fixed edge and a moving blade
Sheet Coil - a term for wide flatrolled steel produced to generic characteristics
Skin Pass - a light rolling of flatrolled steel to stiffen, brighten or gauge-correct flatrolled steel
Slab - the primary, continuously cast shape to be hot rolled into flatrolled coils
Slitting - a continuous rotary shearing operation to split wide coils into narrower coils
Slit Edge - the sheared strip edge created by slitting wide coils into narrow widths
Spheroidized Annealing - a heating process to create globular carbides in the strip
Spring Steel - a term typically used for high carbon steel to make parts that will be heat treated
Stainless Steel - strip steel with chromium and often nickel to deter atmospheric corrosion
Stamping - metalworking operation that shears and forms parts using tools and dies
Steel - iron with carefully specified additions of carbon, manganese and phosphorus
Stretcher Leveling - a steel flattening process that pulls the strip slightly beyond the yield point
Strip Mills - narrow cold mills, more precise than sheet mills, capable of high carbon, alloy grades
Strip Steel - narrow flatrolled steel produced to custom and/or precision characteristics
Strip Tolerances - thickness variation typically half or less of sheet mill industry tolerances
T
Tandem Cold Mill - a series of two or more mill stands that cold reduce the thickness of steel coils
Temper - the specified hardness range or degree of stiffness typical of low carbon strip steel
Temper Mill - a cold mill used to make a light final reduction for temper, finish and thickness accuracy
Tensile Strength - the maximum stress a steel specimen exhibits when pulled to failure
Tolerance - the permissible variation above and below a specified characteristic, such as thickness
Traverse-Wound Coil - another name for an oscillate-wound coil
U
Ultra Heavy Gauge Strip - steel typically heavier than .375", with precision or custom characteristics
Y
Yield Strength - the stress at which a steel specimen exhibits permanent deformation
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