It refers to a material processing method in which the steel strip is rolled at room temperature to gradually reduce the thickness of the steel strip. The raw material for cold rolling is generally hot rolled and annealed steel coils. In the cold rolling process of 304 stainless steel, the metastable austenite structure will undergo strain-induced martensitic transformation, which will increase the strength and hardness of the steel and decrease its plasticity, resulting in significant work hardening.

As the number of rolling passes increases, the total rolling deformation rate increases, the work hardening effect becomes more and more obvious, and the material becomes harder and harder. The 304 hot-rolled coil in the conventional annealed state has lower strength and hardness and better plasticity, which is good for rolling. If the hot rolled coil is directly cold rolled without annealing, the material production cost can be greatly reduced.