EoW March 2007

technology news

DCCD Decalub style! Decalub, France, has introduced its new dry cleaning, coating and drawing (DCCD) process, greatly improving the present state of rod preparation, wire lubrication, and in-line wire cleaning. The process allows immediate substantial cost savings in drawing applications, including spring wire, high-tensile rope wire, bead wire, PC strand wire, galvanised H/C or L/C wire, AL cladded wire, plating wire, CO 2 welding wire, colleted nail wire and cold heading wire. All those products are drawn directly from mechanically descaled bare rod containing up to 0.88-0.90%C, at the highest drawing speeds, without traditional wet pre- coating chemicals, in a completely dry, one-step operation. The DCCD process incorporates high- performance rod acid-free preparation and dry coating/lubrication technology, enabling ‘frictionless’ drawing with the full lubricant film at wire-die interface (physical separation of metal-to-metal contact), thanks to an automatically controlled fusion of the standard lubrication compounds. Such a liquefied substance, with controlled viscosity, performs an exceptionally consistent residual coat, adjustable in weight at all speeds, eliminating the need for phosphate and borax pre-coating chemicals and their wet substitutes. Full film coatings are achieved auto- matically in a wide variety, from ultra thin for plating wire through to a strongly adherent hard coat for spring wire. One of the typical applications of the DCCD process consists in direct drawing from 5.5mm (0.218") diameter mechanically descaled bare rod, with 0.83/0.88% carbon content, without pre-coating, with an output of 2.2 tons/hour and with a die life of 200 tons/die in the first draft and a die wear of 0.30 micron/ton of wire drawn in the last draft (frictionless drawing).

Acid-free rod cleaning and wire drawing from Decalub ▲

In other multi-draft high-carbon DCCD applications, the finishing die produces 40- 60 tons of wire drawn without pre-coating chemicals, with wire properties (ductility, cast and torsion test) greatly improved. The 5.5mm (0.218") 0.83%C mechanically descaled bare rod is drawn directly without wet pre-coating down to 1.85mm (0.073") at 13.5m/s (2,700ft/min) with virtually ‘zero friction’ – exiting wire temperature not exceeding 45°C (113°F), resulting in greatly improved wire fatigue limits and wire surface finish. The spring quality bare rod is DCCD processed and drawn directly from 5.5mm to 1.3mm (0.218"-0.051") at 18m/s (3,600 ft/min), wire properties (cast and torsion test) are exceptionally consistent. One of the system’s new applications consists in direct drawing of mechanically descaled H/C rod, without pre-coating chemicals, with water soluble sodium lubricants in all drafts, enabling in-line wire cleaning for wire plating and galvanising. In production of clean wire, the DCCD system enables lubrication in the last draft with a specific lubricant, easy to clean in-line and process further for wire reflective appearance. In this application, the system simultaneously performs wire surface cleaning and smoothing effect, in a single run.

The DCCD process features ‘zero’ energy consumption, ‘zero’ consumables cost and is easy to operate (fully automatic) and very simple to install in-line with any wire drawing machine. There are no hot liquid tanks for rod pre- coating, no hot air blowers to dry wet rod enabling the process to opreate at virtually ‘zero’ maintenance cost. The DCCD equipment can also be operational within a day. Decalub – France Fax : +33 1 60 20 20 21 Email : info@decalub.com Website : www.decalub.com

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EuroWire – March 2007