A rolling mill is a machine or factory used to shape and process metal by passing it between a pair of working rolls. The metal is passed between two tough cylinders numerous times, with the distance between the cylinders being decreased with each pass so the metal becomes thinner and thinner. Depending on the temperature of the metalworking application rolling mills are typically hot or cold rolling mills. The earliest rolling mills were slitting mills, which were introduced from what is now Belgium to England in 1590. These passed flat bars between rolls to form a plate of iron, which was then passed between grooved rolls (slitters) to produce rods of iron. The first experiments at rolling iron for tinplate took place about 1670. These were followed by the erection by 1697 by Major John Hanbury of a mill at Pontypool to roll 'Pontypool plates'—blackplate. Later this began to be rerolled and tinned to make tinplate. The earlier production of plate iron in Europe had been in forges, not rolling mills. The slitting mill was adapted to producing hoops (for barrels) and iron with a half-round or other sections by means that were the subject of two patents of c. 1679. Some of the [ - ]

A rolling mill is a machine or factory used to shape and process metal by passing it between a... [ + ]