Circular shapes, as well as I-beams and railroad rails, are fabricated using grooved rolls.

• A. Flat sheet metal
• B. Complex gear teeth
• C. Cylindrical billets only
• D. Circular shapes, I-beams, and railroad rails

Answer: (D)

Grooved rolls in a rolling mill shape metal by passing it through grooves that define the cross-section. By choosing the right groove profiles, you can form circular shapes like rounds or tubes, as well as profiled shapes such as I-beams and railroad rails. This is exactly what those rolls are designed to do—they impose the desired contour as the material plastically deforms and flows through the grooves, often in a series of passes to build up the full flange/web geometry of I-beams or the rail profile.

Flat sheet metal, on the other hand, is made with flat, parallel rolls that produce a uniform sheet without grooves. Gear teeth require specialized gear-cutting processes, not grooved-roll shaping. Cylindrical billets are starting stock used to feed the rolling process rather than the final product produced by grooved rolls.