Ohio Strip Steel Featured in March Issue of Metal Center News

Ohio Strip Steel Company was featured in a case study in the March issue of Metal Center News. Ohio Strip Steel, an almost 100-year-old producer of cold-rolled strip, is one of the few remaining North American producer-distributor steel companies to still operate a separate service center.

In 2014, Ohio Strip Steel decided to move its long-established service center from Ferndale, Michigan to Dover, Ohio. During the relocation process, the biggest concern was guaranteeing a smooth, uninterrupted transition for customers. To ensure that the move didn’t impact the quality of service that customers had come to expect, Ohio Strip Steel double produced inventory to prevent gaps in service and product availability.

By all measures, the move has proven extremely successful. Ohio Strip Steel’s newly-relocated service center is still able to provide the same high level of service to its customers. Furthermore, the new facility has allowed Ohio Strip Steel to improve efficiencies and optimize the usage of its equipment while also giving Ohio Strip Steel much more flexibility in accommodating customer demands.

To learn more about the relocation, read the full case study here.

Ohio Strip Steel’s LaserMatte Product Featured in “Advanced Materials and Processes”

Ohio Strip Steel Company’s LaserMatte product was featured in the March 2014 edition of Advanced Materials and Processes. To produce the LaserMatte product, Ohio Strip Steel utilizes a state-of-the-art laser beam texturing process (LBT) to create microcraters in the surface of the steel.

The LBT process, which is more commonly found in Europe and Asia, induces a matte finish on mill rolls of steel. In North America, most textured or matte finishes are developed either through mechanical means, such as shot-blasting, grit-blasting or grinding, or through electro-discharge texturing (EDT).

When compared to such traditional means like mechanical or EDT treated steel, Ohio Strip Steel’s laser-beam-texturing process creates a highly uniform metal surface topography that simply cannot be replicated. The benefits of using laser-treated steel include:

  • Reduced friction and galling, resulting in improved part quality
  • Longer tool and die life
  • Improved process yield
  • Avoidance of costly tool and die coatings
  • Increased productivity due to reduced press downtime
  • Improved metal flow in the die
  • Lower energy costs through increased efficiencies

To learn more about Ohio Strip Steel’s LaserMatte product and process behind it, you can read the entire article here on page 25.