ABSTRACT
Generally speaking, mills are usually identified by their function. Primary cold mills are designated "sheet mills" if they reduce hot band to sheet gages or "tin mills" if they roll the same incoming material to tinplate stock. The necessity of reducing tinplate stock to even thinner strip gave rise about 1960 to the introduction of the "secondary-cold reduction" mill. Wood-faced tables were used to support the workpieces on the entry and exit sides of the mill. In sheet-mill practice, a "cold roller" pushed the sheets into the rolls, one sheet at a time and a "catcher" piled the sheets up on the exit side of the mill, usually on an "annealing box bottom". Historically speaking, two-high mills are the oldest type used for the cold reduction of steel. By far the most popular type of mill stand for the cold rolling of steel strip is the 4-high stand.
