Stainless steel is initially produced in the form of slabs and then undergoes a conversion process using a Z-mill to convert the slabs into coils before further rolling. These wide rolls are usually made around 1250mm (sometimes slightly wider) and are known as 'milled edge rolls'.

These wide coils are further processed using a range of manufacturing techniques, such as slitting, where the wide coil is cut into strands; this is where a lot of the terminology confusion arises. After slitting, the stainless steel is formed into a batch of rolls taken from the parent roll. These rolls are known by many different names, including strip rolls, slit rolls, strips or simply strips.

The way the coils are wound may cause them to have different names. The most common type is called a "pancake coil," named for the way the coil looks when laid flat. "Tape winding" is another name for this winding method. Another type of winding is "traverse" or "oscillating", also called "spool winding" or "spooling" because it looks like a spool of cotton thread, and sometimes they can be physically wrapped around a spool of plastic thread. Producing coils in this way allows for the production of larger coils, resulting in greater stability and higher yields.