Cold Rolled (CRCA) Sheets & Coils

CR, CRCA and full-hard

CRCA (cold rolled close annealed) is the annealed cold rolled product used for bending, pressing and drawing — this is what most buyers mean by "CR sheet". Full-hard cold rolled material has not been annealed; it is typically bought as substrate for coating or where hardness is required rather than formability. State which condition you need.

Grade selection

IS 513 grades run from CR0 (general-purpose) to CR5 (extra-deep-drawing, interstitial-free). Selecting a higher grade than the part needs adds cost; selecting a lower grade causes cracking and rejections in pressing. See the IS 513 guide.

Thickness, not gauge

Shop-floor usage often refers to CR sheet by gauge (for example 18 or 20 gauge). Gauge conversions are not uniform between systems, so the enquiry should state thickness in millimetres.

Primary CR or re-rolled CR

Cold rolled steel reaches the market from two kinds of producer:

• Primary producers — Tata Steel (Steelium), JSW Steel, AM/NS India, Jindal Steel and SAIL — cold roll their own hot rolled coil on integrated pickling, cold-rolling and annealing lines.
• Secondary cold re-rollers — such as Prompt, Urjaa, Gaurang, Uttam Strips and Allied Strips — buy HR coil and cold roll it, often in narrower widths and smaller coils.

Both are supplied against IS 513. Buyers typically specify primary CR for visible panels, deep-drawn parts and customer-approved sources, and re-rolled CR for general fabrication, tubes and narrow-strip work where it meets the specification. State which you need — it changes the quotation. See primary vs re-rolled CR.