A web is a long, thin, and flexible

Flexible

Flexible may refer to:* Flexible electrical cable, also known as a power cord* Flexible electronics* Flexible response* Flexible mold* Flextime* Flexible-fuel vehicle* Flexible rake receiver* Flexible spending account, a tax-advantaged savings account...

 material. Common webs include foil

Foil

Foil may refer to:Materials* Foil , a quite thin sheet of metal, usually manufactured with a rolling mill machine* Metal leaf, a very thin sheet of decorative metal* Aluminium foil, a type of wrapping for food...

, metal

Metal

A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...

, paper

Paper

Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....

, textile

Textile

A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...

, plastic

Plastic

A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...

, and wire

Wire

A wire is a single, usually cylindrical, flexible strand or rod of metal. Wires are used to bear mechanical loads and to carry electricity and telecommunications signals. Wire is commonly formed by drawing the metal through a hole in a die or draw plate. Standard sizes are determined by various...

. Common processes carried out on webs include coating

Coating

Coating is a covering that is applied to the surface of an object, usually referred to as the substrate. In many cases coatings are applied to improve surface properties of the substrate, such as appearance, adhesion, wetability, corrosion resistance, wear resistance, and scratch resistance...

, plating

Plating

Plating is a surface covering in which a metal is deposited on a conductive surface. Plating has been done for hundreds of years, but it is also critical for modern technology...

, and laminating.

A web is generally processed by moving over rollers. Between processing stages, webs are stored and transported as rolls also known as coils, packages and doffs. The end result or use of web manufacturing is usually sheets. The primary motivation to work with webs instead of sheets is economics. Webs, being continuous, can be made at far higher speeds and do not have the start-stop issues of discrete sheet processing.

Web processing is also found in a wide variety of other manufacturing including electronics such as circuit boards, construction materials such as roofing and pharmaceuticals

Pharmaceutical company

The pharmaceutical industry develops, produces, and markets drugs licensed for use as medications. Pharmaceutical companies are allowed to deal in generic and/or brand medications and medical devices...

 such as drug patches. The size of the web handling industries is very difficult to estimate. The very smallest counts are 5,000 web manufacturing and converter sites in the North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. However, if commercial printing is included, the count may be as high as 50,000 sites.

Web handling is the art and science of getting a web through a machine with maximum productivity and minimum waste.