Rolling Mill Occupation

Any Iron and Steel workers out there know what a ' Bolter Down in a Rolling Mill ' is or was? Can you let me know please.

Any Iron and Steel workers out there know what a ' Bolter Down in a Rolling Mill ' is or was? Can you let me know please.

The term was Belter down.He is the man who receives the billet from the furnace,maybe a 3" billet .He then passes it through the rolls until it is maybe 7/8" or 3/4".He then passes it on to the next set of rolls where they will reduce it further.the process goe`s on until they obtain the required size & section.

Any Iron and Steel workers out there know what a ' Bolter Down in a Rolling Mill ' is or was? Can you let me know please.

I worked in the rolling mills for 20 years as near as.

Starting from The Furnace Man he used to load up the cold billets

into the furnace,& when they had reached their heat he would get

them out with tongues & trail them to the rolls

then there would be the Cog Backers & the Prial backers who would pass the hot billets through smaller & smaller rolls till they were at their required size,they were supported by the Hookmen

who took the weight of the heavy hot billets there would be an Under Roller & the main man The Roller usually at the end rolls

making sure the finished aticle was the correct size.

Then there would be a Trailer Down who would run the finished

steel to the Shearman if it was a square or oval finish or the

Sawmen if it was round finish then to the hot Reelers where the

Reelermen would pass the round bars through the cold rollers to ensure perfect straightness & circumference.

The bar s would then be stacked & allowed to cool before being bundled by the Slingers & then being hoisted away by the Craneman either on to a lorry or held in stock.

Every Mill had their different working titles for their workforce,

this 1 was my old Mill & it's job titles.

I worked as a plate lad which is the final operation and then I was on the furnace. The first set of rollers were the cogbackers, the billet went into the bottom of 3 rollers then back through the top of the 3 until they were of a certain size then onto the next set until finally onto the plate to cool. The plate lad had to grab hold of the steel strip with a pair of tongues and then walk fast as the finishing rollers discharged it. We looked like miners because the works were filled with filthy black dust all the time.

Any Iron and Steel workers out there know what a ' Bolter Down in a Rolling Mill ' is or was? Can you let me know please.

Have any of the explanations been of any use.

Very interesting. What is the difference between billets and blooms please?

Fantastic, thankyou. Obviously a mss splling on a Birth Certificate (sorry for the pun)

To my understanding a billet is rolled from a bloom.A bloom could weigh 2 ton & the it is rolled down to 2-3 Or 4 inch billet size then cut into required lengths.

Squares

Blooms: 211 - 457 mm sq

Billets: 75 – 211 mm sq

Rounds

Rolled: 76 – 381 mm dia (larger sizes by agreement)

Turned: 70 – 350 mm dia

http://www.corusgroup.com/en/products/bar_and_billet/hot_rolled/

Thanks Herbert and Malky, greatly appreciated.

Thanks Herbert and Malky, greatly appreciated.

No problem, I worked at a mill and never heard of the job you described but different mills could use different terms, basically you start with a ingot, a bloom is a intermediate stage and you end up with a billet.

I worked on a 10" double duo mill for about 35 yrs & we rolled billets.The biggest we rolled were 3" & we would take them down to all sizes and sections.As small as 1/4" round or 3/8" three square for files.We did up to 1 3/4" round as well.Flats ,octogans,hexagons,bevels & various other sections as well.