Cold-rolled sheets and strips come in various conditions: full-hard, half-hard, quarter-hard, and skin-rolled. Full-hard rolling reduces the thickness by 50%, while the others involve less of a reduction. Quarter-hard is defined by its ability to be bent back onto itself along the grain boundary without breaking. Half-hard can be bent 90°, while full-hard can only be bent 45°, with the bend radius approximately equal to the material thickness. Skin-rolling, also known as a skin-pass, involves the least amount of reduction: 0.5-1%. It is used to produce a smooth surface, a uniform thickness, and reduce the yield-point phenomenon (by preventing Luder bands from forming in later processing).[6] It is also used to breakup the spangles in galvanized steel.[citation needed] Skin-rolled stock is usually used in subsequent cold-working processes where good ductility is required.
Other shapes can be cold-rolled if the uniform is relatively uniform and the transverse dimension is relatively small; approximately less than 50 mm (2.0 in). This may be a cost-effective alternative to extruding or machining the profile if the volume is in the several tons or more. Cold rolling shapes requires a series of shaping operations, usually along the lines of: sizing, breakdown, roughing, semi-roughing, semi-finishing, and finishing.