Strip mills revolutionized the steel industry in the early 1900s, producing larger plates at lower cost. Hot and cold rolling mills were followed by belt mills, which are still used today. The continuous hot rolling process was invented by John Butler Tytus Jr. in 1918, making the process more efficient and less labor-intensive. Strip mills were capital-intensive but less labor-intensive, changing the industry in the 1930s and 1940s.
A strip mill is a type of steel mill invented in the early 1900s. Strip mills and their new technology produced larger steel plates at lower cost, revolutionizing the industry and the future of steel. As production increased at lower cost, steel and tin could be used for many more products.
There are several types of belt mills that have been used throughout the history of steel mills. The first type of strip mill was the hot strip mill. Early hot rolling mills could not produce strip suitable for tinning, as the thickness of the steel was too thick.
Hot rolling mills were followed by cold rolling mills. Cold strip mills were first established around 1929 and were able to produce steel with a thinner gauge. Together with cold milling technology and lower gauge steel, tinning was then made possible. Belt mills are the most common in operation today. Although most of today’s mills were built before 1970, the strip milling process continues to be modernized to meet the current needs and standards of the steel industry.
The first strip mill was built in 1923 in Ashland Kentucky, but the method and process used in a strip mill was first invented by John Butler Tytus, Junior around 1918. Tytus worked for the American Rolling Mill Company (ARMCO) in Ohio at the time. Demand from the automotive and appliance industries was blossoming and created a huge need for steel. Tytus hoped to find a better and more efficient way to produce steel plates.
Keeping the steel rolling was the key component of Tytus’s steelmaking method. This process is now known as the continuous hot rolling process. In a packing house, the plates had to be rolled over and doubled, making the process much slower and more labor intensive. The process used in a strip mill was preferred over pack mill processes because the milling process was continuous. This has caused the packaging to become obsolescent.
The strip mill had many advantages over the package mill. While they were rather capital intensive, which may make it more difficult to start up, they were much less labor intensive, a change that largely changed the steel milling industry in the 1930s and 1940s . The strip rolling process also made it possible to use softer steel.
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