Cold-rolled flat products with thickness from 5 mm and downwards account for a significant portion of the total usage of stainless steel. Typical applications are as maintenance-free cladding both in- and outdoors, for white goods and domestic fittings, and in processes requiring high standards of hygiene or resistance to aggressive chemicals. This wide spectrum of applications is covered by products with a range of surface finishes. For example, sheet with designation 2B is subjected to a light final cold-rolling pass which improves the thickness tolerance as well as surface finish. If annealing is carried out in a protective atmosphere instead of air, the surface, after a final light rolling pass on a mill with highly-polished rolls, attains a near-mirror finish, designated 2R.