Flat Rolled Product - What's Leveled, Blanked, and Cut-To-Length?

If you're looking for flat material, coil stock can be tough. While high-volume fabricators might have their own equipment to flatten coil and process it into sheets, too often you're at the mercy of pattern sizes and prepackaged quantities rather than being able to order what you need. The leveling and blanking process takes care of that.

Leveling 

Leveling is the process of unrolling coil and cutting into lengths. Depending on the material type, common pattern or sheet sizes are 24”, 36”, 48”, 60”, and 72” wide by 96”, 120”, or 144” long. Being that coils of metal have memory, there are many flatness-related concerns when producing a flat sheet. Leveling lines often have rollers that will help ease some of the stress in the material.

Blanking

Blanking is simply another term for leveling. It often refers to a custom size that will help you minimize the scrap or flatness challenges pattern sheets often impose. Typically, material would be slit to a custom width of your desire and cut into smaller “metal blanks" which can ease handling and improve productivity for your project. 

Cut-to-Length

Another term for the leveling or blanking process is cut-to-length. In some cases, this process suggests that no additional measures were taken to relieve the stress in coil material before it's cut into flat pieces. This practice is most common with softer materials, which are more ductile and can be “work hardened” if too much pressure is applied to rollers during the leveling or blanking process. 

What Do You Need?

Now that you know a bit more about metal blanking and cut-to-length for flat rolled products, your next step is to pay close attention to your desired finished product. You'll want to consider pricing, availability, and yield when sourcing sheet or blanks. In many cases, metal blanks are worth the few extra pennies per pound because of better scrap loss. And working with a service center that can produce the quantities you need and understand your end user can prevent a major headache.

We have the ability to process a wide range of flat rolled products for you, no matter how big or small your order needs to be. Our company carries an array of materials, and we are all about providing our customers with on-time delivery. We want you to know that the lead time you're quoted is met 99.98% of the time. Yes, we seriously keep track to give you what you need, when you need it. 

Our team is committed to providing you with excellent customer service whether you're a returning customer or shopping with us for the first time.

If you let us get to know your application more, our custom solutions can save you time and money to get your material readily shipped for your customers.