Bar stock or Round Bar

Process and types

Most metal produced by a steel mill or aluminium plant is formed (via rolling or extrusion) into
long continuous strips of various size and shape. These strips are cut at regular intervals and
allowed to cool, each segment becoming a piece of bar stock. A good analogy is pasta-making, in
which lumps of dough are extruded into various cross-sectional shapes; cut into lengths; and then
dried in that form. The cross-sectional shapes of pasta vary from simple bar or tube shapes (such
as linguine or penne) to more elaborate extrusions (such as rotelle, fiori, or rotini). The same is
true of metal bar stock. The most common shapes are round bar (also called rod), rectangular
bar (including square bar, the special case of equal sides), and hexagonal bar (usually called
hex bar for short). Tube and pipe are similar, but have hollow centers and are traditionally not
called "bar" in industrial usage. (However, a product called hollow bar, essentially tube but with
custom-orderable OD and ID and thus custom wall thickness, is marketed for lathe bar work
which can benefit from obviation of drilling and rough boring.) Also similar in concept, but not
called "bar", are the common structural shapes such as angle stock and channel stock. These are
commonly available in steel and aluminum; the names "angle iron" and "channel iron" are still
commonly used (informally) even though their literal namesake, wrought iron, has been replaced
by steel and aluminum for most uses.
In a machine shop, bar stock and plate are often called billet, although in a rolling mill, that word
refers to a piece of metal that has not yet been rolled into bar.

Rolling
In metalworking, rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through one
or more pairs of rolls to reduce the thickness and to make the thickness uniform. The concept is
similar to the rolling of dough. Rolling is classified according to the temperature of the metal
rolled. If the temperature of the metal is above its recrystallization temperature, then the process
is known as hot rolling. If the temperature of the metal is below its recrystallization temperature,
the process is known as cold rolling. In terms of usage, hot rolling processes more tonnage than
any other manufacturing process, and cold rolling processes the most tonnage out of all cold
working processes.[1][2] Roll stands holding pairs of rolls are grouped together into rolling mills
that can quickly process metal, typically steel, into products such as structural steel (I-beams,
angle stock, channel stock, and so on), bar stock, and rails. Most steel mills have rolling mill
divisions that convert the semi-finished casting products into finished products.
There are many types of rolling processes, including ring rolling, roll bending, roll forming,
profile rolling, and controlled rolling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_stock