Steel Plate Rolling & Forming Services

Ferrum Crafts Engineering rolls and forms heavy steel plate into cylinders, cones, and shells for pressure vessels, storage tanks, silos, and ducting. From our Yamunanagar facility we handle carbon steel, stainless, and low-alloy plate to code tolerances, with in-house edge preparation, pre-bending, and long-seam welding — one shop, one heat number, one accountable process.

Plate rolling & forming capability

Plate rolling is the process of cold-forming flat steel plate into cylindrical or conical shapes by passing it through a set of powered rolls. For pressure vessels, tanks, and heavy ducting, the quality of the rolled shell decides how easily the longitudinal seam fits up, how round the finished cylinder is, and how much rework the welder inherits. We treat rolling as a precision operation — pre-bent ends, controlled passes, and dimensional checks at every stage — not just a step before welding.

Rolling equipment at Yamunanagar

Our Yamunanagar shop is equipped for both light plate work and heavy pressure-part shells:

• 4-roll hydraulic plate bending machine — parallel pre-bending on both edges in a single set-up, which eliminates the flat spot at the seam and cuts finishing time on pressure-vessel shells.
• 3-roll pyramid-type bending machine — used for lighter gauges, ducting, and cones where a single pre-bend on the press is acceptable.
• Hydraulic press with V-dies for pre-bending plate ends before rolling on the 3-roll machine.
• CNC plasma and oxy-fuel cutting plus edge-milling for weld-prep bevels ahead of the long seam.
• Turning rolls and welding rotators up to heavy shell weights for SAW long-seam and circ-seam welding after rolling.

Thickness, diameter & length capacities

Typical envelope for cold rolling at our facility (higher thicknesses are handled with hot forming or multi-pass cold work — please share the plate grade and yield strength for a firm confirmation):

• Plate thickness: up to 60 mm in mild / low-carbon steel, up to 40 mm in stainless.
• Rolling length: up to 3,000 mm (roll face).
• Minimum diameter: approximately 1.5× plate thickness after pre-bending.
• Maximum shell diameter: unlimited — larger shells are built up from multiple courses.
• Cones: half-angle and full cones formed on the 3-roll machine with cone-rolling attachments.

Every rolling job is validated against the plate's actual yield strength, thickness tolerance, and mill test certificate before the operator sets pass depths — a spec written for A516 Gr. 70 does not translate one-to-one to duplex or Hardox.

Material grades — carbon, stainless & alloy

Carbon & pressure-vessel steels

ASTM A516 Gr. 60 / 70, IS 2062 E250/E350, and boiler-quality plate (SA-515 / SA-516) are our workhorse grades for pressure-vessel shells, LPG bullets, storage tanks, and process columns. Grain direction is respected during nesting so the long seam runs perpendicular to the rolling direction where the code calls for it.

Stainless steel

SS 304 / 304L, 316 / 316L, and duplex UNS S31803 are rolled with dedicated tooling to prevent iron contamination that would compromise the passive layer. Springback is significantly higher than on carbon steel, and pass depths are adjusted accordingly to hit the target radius on the first pull-through.

Low-alloy & wear plates

SA-387 Gr. 11 / 22 (Cr-Mo), Corten, and abrasion-resistant plates such as Hardox 400 / 450 are formed with reduced pass depths and pre-heat where required by the plate maker's rolling recommendations.

Cylinders, cones and dished shells

The bulk of our rolling work falls into four families:

• Cylindrical shells for pressure vessels, reactors, columns, and storage tanks.
• Cones and reducers for hoppers, silo transitions, chimney sections, and cyclone bodies.
• Dished-end skirts and knuckle sections that mate to torispherical or hemispherical heads.
• Ducting and stack sections for FGD, ID / FD fans, and boiler flue-gas paths.

Precision, tolerances & quality control

Rolled shells are checked before the long seam is welded — chasing an out-of-round shell after welding is expensive and rarely fully successful. Standard shop checks:

• Circumference tape at both ends and mid-length.
• Out-of-roundness measured on a template or by chord-and-radius, per ASME Section VIII Div. 1 UG-80 for pressure parts.
• Peaking and banding at the long seam, checked with a chord gauge before fit-up.
• Edge preparation and bevel angle re-verified before SAW.
• Heat-number traceability transferred from parent plate onto every rolled course.

Where the shell is part of a code vessel, the fabrication is executed under our ASME-aligned quality plan, with third-party inspection (TPIA) hold-points at fit-up, long-seam NDE, and hydrotest.

Applications

• Pressure vessel shells and reactor bodies.
• Storage tanks, LPG bullets, and water / chemical vessels.
• Boiler pressure parts, drums, and headers.
• Silos, hoppers, and material-handling cones.
• Stacks, chimneys, and ducting for power and process plants.
• Structural pipe and column sections built up from rolled plate.

Frequently asked questions

What thickness of plate can you roll?

Cold rolling up to roughly 60 mm in mild steel and 40 mm in stainless, on a 3,000 mm roll face. Heavier or higher-strength plates are evaluated case by case based on yield strength and required inside diameter.

What is the minimum diameter you can roll?

The practical minimum inside diameter is about 1.5 times plate thickness after pre- bending — tighter than that risks cracking on the outer fibre, especially in higher- strength grades.

Do you roll stainless steel without cross-contamination?

Yes. Stainless plate is rolled with dedicated stainless-only tooling and consumables, handled on clean rollers, and inspected for iron contamination before it leaves the rolling bay.

Can you supply rolled shells with the long seam already welded and NDE-cleared?

Yes — rolling, edge prep, SAW long-seam welding, radiography or UT, and PWHT where required are all executed in-house. Shells ship finished, marked, and inspection- released.

Do you form cones as well as cylinders?

Yes. Cones and reducers are developed from flat pattern, cut on CNC, pre-bent, and rolled on the 3-roll machine using cone-rolling attachments. Both concentric and eccentric cones are within scope.