Cold rolling reduces metal strip thickness at room temperature for high accuracy and strength. Sendzimir mills use cluster rolls for hard materials like stainless steel. The process produces precision strip for automotive, electronics, appliances, and industrial applications.
Cold rolling is a deformation process in which metal strip, typically steel, stainless steel, aluminum, or copper alloys, is reduced in thickness at room temperature to achieve high dimensional accuracy, improved surface finish, and enhanced mechanical properties through work hardening. The process uses multi‑stand rolling mills with precisely aligned work rolls that apply compressive forces as the strip passes through. Sendzimir (Z‑Mill) rolling, a specialized form of cold rolling, uses small‑diameter work rolls supported by multiple backup rolls arranged in a cluster configuration. This design enables extremely high rolling pressures, making it ideal for hard materials such as stainless steel or high‑strength alloys while maintaining tight tolerances and excellent flatness. Tooling includes hardened, advanced Cold Work Tool Steels and HSS or carbide‑coated work rolls, backup rolls, bearings, lubrication systems, and strip guidance controls. Applications include precision strip for automotive components, stainless steel sheet, electronic connector materials, appliance panels, and high‑strength industrial laminates.
BÖHLER K110 is a 12% ledeburitic chromium steel and corresponds to material number 1.2379 (X153CrMoV12, D2). This tool steel combines the advantages of conventional 12% ledeburitic chromium steels with those of advanced tool steels. In the group of 12% ledeburitic chromium steels, BÖHLER K110 offers the best combination of wear resistance, compressive strength and toughness, for which reason it is used in virtually all cold work applications. Its advantageous tempering behavior with a pronounced secondary hardness maximum also enables the use of advanced coatings. This also makes BÖHLER K110 suitable for complex tools requiring a high degree of dimensional stability and shape stability.
Read MoreBÖHLER K390 MICROCLEAN is a high-alloyed, high-performance cold work tool steel manufactured using powder metallurgy. This material has the highest alloy content in the group of cold work tool steels with high vanadium content. The high alloy content gives this material outstanding wear resistance. At the same time, the powder metallurgical manufacturing process creates a uniform matrix with finely distributed primary carbides. Among other things, this leads to good material toughness. BÖHLER K390 MICROCLEAN is a problem solver for applications requiring extremely high wear resistance and compressive strength.
Read MoreBÖHLER K490 MICROCLEAN is a high-performance cold work tool steel with a balanced property profile, manufactured using powder metallurgy. This powder metallurgical tool steel offers an outstanding combination of high wear resistance, compressive strength, toughness and very good machinability. Thanks to the resulting flexibility, BÖHLER K490 MICROCLEAN is used in virtually all cold work applications, and in many cases this material is the first choice for newly developed tools. The commonly used hardening temperatures of BÖHLER K490 MICROCLEAN also enable shared heat treatment with popular cold work tool steels (1.2379, D2), making it very economical in terms of heat treatment.
Read MoreBÖHLER W302 ISOBLOC is a 5% chromium steel and corresponds to material number 1.2344 (X40CrMoV5-1). Produced via the electroslag remelting process (ESR), this tool steel has very high hot toughness as well as very high hot hardness and a very good resistance against heat-checkings. The combination of these properties makes it a top performer in closed- and open-die forging as well as in high- and low-pressure die casting. In addition, this material has very good polishability and is therefore also often used as a molding material for plastic injection molds.
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