Abstract: A reel configuration for winding thinly rolled finished strip after passing through a cooling section situated at the end of an installation for the continuous rolling of hot strip cross sections from thin slabs which are cast with near-final dimensions, on one of two expandable reel mandrels arranged such that they float in a horizontal and parallel manner with respect to one another. The mandrels are mounted such that they are rotatably driven independently of one another in a supporting structure which can rotate about a common horizontal center axis and to which the finished strip coming from the finishing train can be fed by means of a driver-shear combination. High speed emergency shears are arranged upstream of the driver-shear combination and have assigned to them a collecting space underneath the plane of the roller table for receiving the residual material from the finishing train.