Abstract: In the manufacture of hot-rolled steel strip, a continuous casting machine casts a slab and a roll stand for reducing the thickness of the slab to make strip is incorporated in line with the continuous casting machine. Advantages of simplicity and rolling quality are obtained when the roll stand is a two-high roll stand having a single pair of rolls. Where there is a reheater for reheating the strip after its rolling in the two-high roll-stand, the two-high roll stand is the sole apparatus for reducing the thickness of the slab after full solidification of the slab and prior to entry of the strip into the reheater.

Abstract: To reduce the width of slabs from a reheating furnace to the width required in a finishing rolling train, thereby making it possible to feed slabs of only one width, or only a few widths, into the reheating furnace, the invention proposes rolling the slab in a width-reducing roll train in which the slab is subjected to traction such that plastic deformation occurs between the roll sets. In particular the width-reducing roll train has only one set of thickness rolls and has one or more sets of width rolls, thereby minimizing the length of the roll train and consequently reducing the lengths at the ends of the slab which are not subjected to the traction.