Metal Glossary

Designed to be a quick reference guide for customers, the Cashmores glossary provides definitions of the latest metal industry terms.

Metal Glossary

Designed to be a quick reference guide for customers, the Cashmores glossary provides definitions of the latest metal industry terms.
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  • Sheared Edges
    The cut edges that are produced when a wide sheet or coil is sheared or slit, by rotary cutters or a guillotine, into narrower widths/lengths.
  • Shearing
    The operation of cutting sheet or strip to the required size with a guillotine.
  • Sheet
    Usually defined as cold rolled flat product in the thickness range 0.25mm to 3.25mm.
  • Short Transverse Direction
    The minor axis at right angles to the major, longitudinal, axis.
  • Single-Hole Die
    An extrusion die with one hole, therefore capable of producing just one extrusion per cycle.
    Related Terms: Multi-Hole Die
  • Sinking, Sink Drawing
    The cold drawing of a tube without a mandrel in the bore to control bore dimensions. It enables closer tolerances to be achieved on the outside diameter and increases mechanical properties.
    Related Terms: Cold Drawing
  • Skin Passing, Pinch Passing
    A cold rolling pass, with minimal reduction of thickness, of annealed sheet or strip. It reduces the tendency to kinks, flats and stretcher strains on subsequent manipulation. Flat material so treated is described as 'skin passed', 'pinch passed', 'non-kinking', 'non-flatting' or 'killed'. The material will also be brighter and have closer tolerances.
  • Slab
    A hot rolled or forged primary feedstock for rolling or forging. The cross-section is rectangular, typically with a width more than twice the thickness.
  • Slab
    Rolling Slab
    A cast product that will be used for hot rolling. Size up to 300mm thick, 2000mm wide and 10/15 metres long with weight up to 15 tonnes.
  • Slitting
    The operation of continuously cutting a wide coil of strip into a narrower strips by rotary cutters. The narrower strips are usually re-coiled after slitting.
  • Slitting
    The simultaneous cutting of a coil or wide strip into a number of narrower strips by means of rotary cutters.
  • Smelting
    A stage in the extraction of Copper from its ores. The ore concentrate is melted, with a flux, in a reverberatory furnace to produce Copper Matte, a mixture of Copper and Iron Sulphides that contains 30% to 40% Copper.
    Related Terms: Copper Matte, Matte
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