Abstract: Some typical roll shapes available to vary roll gap through roll shifting in rolling process were analyzed comparatively, such as basic CVC roll, optimal CVC roll and SMART Crown roll in view of the shape design, axial load acting on the roll and no-load roll gap. The results showed that when using the optimal CVC roll shape, the axial force is smaller if the strip width is in the range from 800 to 1600 mm. On the SMART Crown rolls, the no-load roll gap in both flank zones is bigger than CVC roll, which is sensitive to shape wave, so, the SMART Crown roll has superiority in controlling strip shape wave.