Table of Contents
Quick Links to Web Page Topics

1. Vocabulary
2. Instrument Users
3. Faculty Mentors
4. Safety!
5. Report Injuries
6. Prevent Damage
7. Maintenance
8. Instrument Operation
9. Links to Laboratory Handouts Prepared to Aid Student Learning
   1. Link to Sophomore Laboratory Handout (MET 231)
10. Quizzes and Surveys

• The Fenn Rolling Mill is a very dangerous piece of equipment to operate. The main power box is always locked. See any metallurgy faculty member to have the Fenn Rolling Mill power box unlocked. If the box is found unlocked please report this safety violation to Dr. Medlin.
• Wear a short sleeve shirt or roll up your shirtsleeve.
• Never place a hand closer than six inches from the rolls while the mill is running.
• Metal flakes can chip off the rolled metal and fly into the room. When rolling, wear a lab coat, high temperature gloves and facemask.
• A formal lab group is five students. If a demonstration is being presented, fifteen people are allowed in the lab. Because metal flakes can chip off the rolled metal and fly into the room, make sure the audience is out of the line-of-sight of the mill roll exit point before proceeding.
• Never place the furnace tongs or for that matter any tongs near the moving rolls. If the tongs have finger holes, the mill will pull your hand into the roll before your lab partner can stop it.
• Always push the sample toward the moving rolls with a wood block that is at least six-inches long.
• Students are not allowed to work alone in the lab. There must always be a lab partner present when any equipment is being used in this laboratory.
• Some instruments have a logbook. A logbook is not maintained for the Fenn Rolling Mill.

• To minimize roll damage only flat plate may be rolled on this mill.
• To minimize roll damage hot rolling of ferrous metals at temperature above 550^oC is not allowed.
• Hot rolling aluminum or copper alloys at temperature above 550^oC. is not allowed.

• Each semester the first MET 231 laboratory group will grease the mill roll spacing adjustment acme screws and fill the roll bearing oilier cups.

• Clean the area around the Fenn Rolling Mill and make sure the furnace, if used, is set at 200^oC before leaving the laboratory. Never turn the furnace off. Reason: the furnace elements are brittle at room temperature and are more easily damaged than if left warm.
• If finished make sure the Fenn Rolling Mill electric power breaker is off and locked.
• Contact Dr. Medlin if the Rolling Mill is damaged. Leaving equipment after it has been damaged is a disservice to those that follow. Please report damage as soon as it happens!

• Samples are usually prepared for undergraduate labs by the professor in charge.
• The dimension of the sample is limited by the power available and the physical size of the mill.
• To reduce wear and tear on the machine non-ferrous samples are rectangular plates between 0.75 x 0.75 inches to 0.25 x 2.0 inches.
• For ferrous alloys try to limit the rectangular cross-section of the plate to 0.25 x 0.75 inches, with the larger dimension in contact with the roll face.

Cold Rolling

• The metal sample must be fully annealed.
• In the design of the experiment each specimen will have a predetermined set of percent reduction of areas planned for each roll spacing. These calculations must be made in advance.
• Adjust the mill roll spacing so the sample will slide between the rolls snugly. This process is discussed below the video illustrations.
• After each pass through the roll it is useful to reverse the end of the sample being pushed through the mill, and to also rotate the sample 180^oabout it’s long axis. This helps keep the sample flat.
• If cracks or chips are observed: STOP! This usually occurs at the edges of the rolled sheet. Further attempts to roll this material will most likely cause the material to fracture in numerous locations.

Hot Rolling - Thermal Mechanical Processing (TMP) is Introduced as a Laboratory Objective in MET 441/541

• Three people are required for TMP experiments.
  • Furnace Side of Mill Operator
  • Controller Side of Mill Operator
  • Mill Roll Spacing Recorder – see information about reading mill roll spacing below.
• The temperature display on the furnace is not accurate. Check out a digital thermocouple readout and thermocouple from Dr. Medlin. Insert the thermocouple into the front of the furnace and if possible the thermocouple tip should touch the sample.
• Following the same basic procedures for cold rolling.
• In the design of the experiment it is usual to know exactly the preset reduction in areas between each reheat of the specimen. It is the responsibilities of the Mill Roll Spacing Recorder to order the sample to be placed back into the furnace for reheat.

• The above three images show the Rolling Mill Controller. The only control features used are best viewed in the image to the right:
  • Start-Stop Switch
  • Forward-Reverse Switch and the,
  • Roll Speed Knob

• The first step is to get the Rolling Mill running in the direction wanted:
  • Turn On the Mill Start-Stop Switch – if the mill is running the wrong direction turn the power off and move the Forward-Reverse Switch to its opposite position,
  • Turn On The Mill Start-Stop Switch.

• With Rolling Mill running in the correct direction,
  • push the sample toward the mill rolls,
  • when the sample is clear of the rolls; stop the rolling mill,
  • move the Forward – Reverse Switch to its opposite position,
  • restart the Rolling Mill,
  • adjust mill spacing,
  • push sample toward the mill rolls, and then
  • repeat the process until finished.