Universal Mill Plate

Universal mill (UM) plate is steel plate rolled to width between vertical edging rolls as well as to thickness between horizontal rolls, so it leaves the mill with two as-rolled (rounded) edges and is only trimmed to length on the ends. It contrasts with sheared plate, which is over-rolled and then trimmed to width and length by shearing or flame cutting on all edges. The vertical rolls give UM plate tighter width control and a rounded mill edge, useful where the edge is left as-rolled. The term survives mainly in older structural and shipbuilding mill practice; most modern wide hull plate is plate-mill product cut to size.