Cold and hot rolled

Pacific Rim Enterprises produces Cold Rolled Steel (CRS) and Hot Rolled steel (HRS) which are both LOW carbon steels. The obvious difference between the two types is their appearance: 1) CRS has a smooth, shiny finish with square corners; and 2) HRS has a dark-scaled, rough finish with rounded corners. Another difference between CRS and HRS is their size tolerance: 1) CRS sizes are less than plus or minus 0.005 inches; and 2) HRS sizes are plus or minus 0.01 inches are sometimes even greater.

Since the carbon content is too low to heat treat and harden, strength, stiffness, and hardness are the same between CRS and HRS; however, straightness is often better with CRS.

Machinability is practically the same between CRS and HRS although HRS’ scale can affect tool life if very light skim cuts are used.

The difference between CRS and HRS is seen when welding or machining as CRS has considerable stress present from cold working—particularly tensile stresses near the surfaces. CRS will warp many hundredths of an inch per foot if a CRS bar has the surface machine alone one edge whereas an HRS bar will hardly ever warp at all. When welding the two materials, there will be more warpage in CRS than HRS because heat actually relaxes the stresses.

It's the Pacific Rim Enterprises way that makes the difference!