The steel making process is complex, with many terms that are unique to the industry. How many steel term do you know?

Annealing
The heat treatment process by which steel products are reheated to a suitable temperature in order to remove stresses from previous processing and to soften them and/or improve their machinability and cold forming properties.

Bar
A finished steel product, commonly in flat, square, round or hexagonal shapes. Rolled from billets, bars are produced in two major types: merchant and special.

Carbon steel
A type of steel that generally has only a small quantity of elements other than carbon, silicon, manganese, sulphur and phosphorus, so it has no significant alloying element.

Coated steels
Steel is coated by a heat process, or through electrolysis, with a layer to protect the metal base against corrosion. The most commonly used coating material is zinc which can be applied either using the heat process (hot-dip galvanising) or using electrolysis (electro-galvanising). An organic coating (paint, plastic) can also be deposited on the zinc layer.

Coil
A finished steel product such as sheet or strip which has been wound or coiled after rolling.

Cold rolling
Passing a sheet or strip that has previously been hot rolled and picked through cold rolls (below the softening temperature of the metal). Cold rolling makes a product that is thinner, smoother and stronger than can be made by hot rolling alone.

Galvanised steel
Produced when hot or cold rolled sheet or strip is coated with zinc, either by the hot-dipping or electrolytic deposition processes. Zinc coating applied by the hot dip method is normally heavy enough to resist corrosion without additional protective coating. Materials electronically galvanised are not used for corrosion-resistant applications without subsequent chemical treatment and painting, except in mild corrosive conditions, due to the thin coating of zinc. Galvanise is a pure zinc coating. A special heat-treating process converts the pure zinc coating to a zinc/iron alloy coating, and the product is known as Galvanneal.

Hot and cold rolling mill
Hot-rolling mill: Equipment on which solidified steel preheated to a high temperature is continuously rolled between two rotating cylinders. 
Cold rolling mill: Equipment that reduces the thickness of flat steel products by rolling the metal between alloy steel cylinders at room temperature.

Plate
A flat rolled product from slabs or ingots of greater thickness than sheet or strip.

Sheet
A flat rolled product over 12 inches in width and of less thickness than plate.

Sintering
A process which combines ores too fine for efficient blast furnace use with flux stone. The mixture is heated to form clumps, which allow better draft in the blast furnace.

Strip
Flat steel coil products, with widths of less than 600mm for hot rolled products and less than 500mm for cold rolled products. The wider flat products are called wide strips.

Structural pipe and tubing
Welded or seamless pipe and tubing generally used for structural or load-bearing purposes above-ground by the construction industry, as well as for structural members in ships, trucks, and farm equipment.