Influence of roll radius on roughness transfer in skin-pass rolling of steel strip

Skin-pass rolling (or temper rolling) is usually the final process in the production of cold-rolled steel sheets. One of the main objectives in skin-pass rolling is to obtain a certain surface roughness profile. Although a large roll radius compared to the contact length and the reduction in thickness is one of the characteristics of skin-pass rolling conditions, numerous studies have been conducted thus far using laboratory mills with small radius rolls. In this paper, the influence of roll radius on roughness transfer in skin-pass rolling is investigated by experimental rolling tests as well as numerical analysis by elastic–plastic FEM. A simple but useful method of estimating roughness transfer is suggested. It was found that some characteristics of skin-pass rolling related to roughened rolls are not properly simulated using small radius rolls.