Merit Steel USA is not just a flat-rolled steel distributor — we are a full service steel processing center. Our in-house processing capabilities allow us to supply product that's ready for your equipment the moment it arrives, eliminating the time and cost of additional conversion steps on your production floor.
Processing services are available on the full range of Merit USA flat-rolled steel products, from galvanized and cold rolled to HRPO, galvalume, and tin mill products.
Steel Slitting
Slitting is the primary processing service at Merit USA. Our slitting operation takes wide master coil — typically 36″ to 72″ wide — and cuts it into multiple narrower slit coils at the widths your process requires. This eliminates the need for your operators to run heavy, unwieldy master coil widths through additional equipment before your press, roll-former, or tube mill can use it.
Slitting Capabilities
- Minimum slit width: .50″ (one-half inch)
- Maximum coil weight: 50,000 lbs
- Gauge range: Full range of flat-rolled gauges stocked by Merit USA
- Materials slit: Galvanized, cold rolled, HRPO, hot rolled, galvalume, galvaneal, tinplate, bonderized
- Slit-to-width tolerance: Meets or exceeds applicable ASTM width tolerance requirements
The ability to slit as narrow as .50″ is a significant capability that many service centers cannot match. This enables Merit USA to serve customers running very narrow strip through progressive dies, tube welding lines, and specialty roll-forming applications where the economics of narrow slit coil vs. buying wider and trimming on your own equipment are strongly in favor of outsourced slitting.
Why Outsource Slitting?
Many manufacturers who run slit-to-width coil on their lines face a make-or-buy decision: maintain their own slitting equipment, or purchase pre-slit product from a service center. For most manufacturers, the economics favor buying slit-to-width:
- Capital avoidance — Slitting equipment is expensive to purchase, install, and maintain
- Labor savings — Dedicated slitting operators and setup time eliminated
- Scrap reduction — Precise slitting on dedicated equipment vs. occasional in-house trimming
- Floor space — Slitting equipment takes significant floor space that can be used for production
- Inventory flexibility — Order exactly what you need in the width you need it
Coil Processing
Beyond slitting, Merit USA provides a range of coil processing services to prepare flat-rolled steel for your production line:
Recoiling
Recoiling cleans up coil packaging issues — correcting telescoped or damaged coils, removing damaged outer wraps, or adjusting coil ID/OD to match your equipment's requirements. Recoiled product arrives ready to run on your uncoiler without the time lost managing a damaged or out-of-tolerance coil.
Traverse Winding
For very narrow slit strip that cannot be rewound as a conventional pancake coil, traverse winding (also called oscillate winding or traverse-wound coil) produces a figure-8-style pack that feeds from the center without twist. This is commonly required for narrow strip fed into progressive dies and automated stamping lines.
Custom Packaging
We can accommodate specific packaging requirements including eye-to-the-sky vs. eye-to-the-side orientation, specific coil OD maximums for your equipment, banding patterns, edge protection, and rust-inhibiting packaging for material that will be stored before processing.
Processing Turnaround
Our processing operation is integrated with our distribution inventory, which means we can typically turn around processing orders quickly — often within one to three business days for standard slit-to-width orders, faster for urgent requirements when material is in stock and the slitter is scheduled.
Rush processing is available when your production schedule requires it. Contact our team to discuss your timing requirements and we'll work to accommodate urgent material needs within our capacity.
Custom Processing Requests
If your application has specific processing requirements not covered above, contact us to discuss. Our team has broad experience in flat-rolled steel processing and can often accommodate non-standard requirements or advise on alternative approaches that achieve your production goals. The Metals Service Center Institute publishes industry standards and best practices for service center processing operations.
To request a quote for processing services, contact the Merit USA team. Include your material specification, gauge, width requirements, coil weight, and timing needs for the fastest response.