Types of Rolling Mills

Two-high Reversing Type

• The two-high reversing mill uses two rollers between which the metal is fed. The metal is passed back and forth (two ways) and produces sheets of metal for plates, rails and structural uses.

Three High-rolling Type

• The three-high rolling mill has three parallel rollers. The three-high rolling mill, unlike the two-high reversing mill, allows the back and forth actions to be done simultaneously, one sheet fed between the top and center roller while another is fed through the center and bottom roller.

Continuous Rolling Type

• The continuous roller is a non-reversing mill that consists of two or more rollers positioned one after the other. The metal passes through the rollers in one direction and if the material is needed to go through the rollers several times, the sheets are brought back to the open feeding mechanism for another pass.

Pull-Over Type

• The pull over mill is a small version of the two-high non-reversing mill that creates thin sheet metal. However, unlike the two-high type, the metal sheet is pulled through another roller in order to create a thinner sheet.

Flat Roller

• A flat rolling mill flattens the metal to the thickness of the gap between rollers and elongates it to make sheets and plates.

Ring Roller

• In ring rolling, the metal ring is rolled between two rollers to widen its diameter. This type uses an idler roller and a driver roller, which together helps to increase the diameter and decrease the thickness of the ring.

Foil Roller

• Foil rolling also flattens metal but to a finer thickness -- usually just mere fractions of an inch. The rollers in this type of mill thin multiple sheets by compressing them and rolling them together. This type of mill is used to produce aluminum foil.

Roll Bending

• Roll bending entails bending a sheet or strip of metal through several sets of rollers. With each roller, the metal sheet or strip is curved only a degree, which is why several rollers are needed to effectively curl or roll the sheet.