During the rolling process the rollers bow slightly which results in the sheets being thinner on the edges.
Thickness tolerance on 18 ga sheet steel.
Sheet metal guage tolerances.
Conversion data chart standard gauges chart gauge tolerance chart useful data page.
The tolerances in the table and attachments reflect current manufacturing practices and commercial standards and are not representative of the manufacturer s standard gauge which has no inherent tolerances.
For example in one gauge system 18 gauge steel measures 0 0478 inches thick but 18 gauge aluminum is 0 0403 inches thick.
The thickness of an 18 gauge aluminum sheet is 0403 inch.
There are several different gauge systems used today with specific gauge designations used for specific metal types.
Gauge to thickness chart gauge stainless galvanized sheet steel aluminum fraction inches mm inches mm inches mm inches mm 30 0 0125 0 33 0 0157 0 40 0 0120 0 30 0 0100 0 25.