Process for forming ferrous billets into finished product

Abstract

A process for forming a ferrous billet into a finished product is disclosed comprising the following steps, in sequence: heating the billet to an appropriate elevated bulk temperature in preparation for rolling; hot rolling the heated billet to produce a semifinished product having an intermediate bulk temperature which is lower than said elevated bulk temperature; cooling the semifinished product to reduce the surface temperature thereof to a level below that of a desired finish rolling bulk temperature; allowing the temperatures of the surface and center portions of the semifinished product to equalize substantially to the level of the desired finish rolling bulk temperature; rolling the semifinished product to a finished product; and, cooling the finished product to an ambient bulk temperature.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.