2050 – 09 – What is Hot Working?

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Hot working and cold working create different types of stock. Each piece of steel is hot worked after the initial process of ingot or continuous casting. The steel is kept at about one thousand three hundred degrees Fahrenheit during hot working, so it remains easily workable and malleable.

Hot rolling is the most common method of hot working. In the hot rolling procedure, a slab of metal is pressed in between two large rolls. This squeezes the metal and makes the slab longer — kind of like using a rolling pin to roll out dough. Most operations use a series of rolls to make the stock shape.

Hot working refines the steel by making it more ductile. The pressure of the rollers also works out any air pockets and imperfections. It’s important to be aware, though, that hot-worked metal can sometimes create stock that is unpredictable in size.