EoW November 2009

technology news

“ ACID-FREE PROCESS FOR STEEL ROD CLEANING & SURFACE PREPARATION” “New Way to Draw Steel Wire in the 21 st Century”

Drawing and annealing technology

DCCD process features: • Eliminates acid, borax and precoatings • Zero energy consumption • Direct drawing from bare rod with no speed limitation, for H/C and L/C • New Lubricant Viscosity Control provides exceptionally adherent coating • Adjustable lubricant residual • Zero lubricant waste • Recommended for severe drawing applications (spring, rope, bead, CO 2 welding, PC strand, plating quality) • H/C wire drawn at 18 m/s (3600 ft/min) • Up to 8 times longer die life • Exiting wire temp. 45°C (113°F) • Greatly improved wire ductility

R 501 continuous resistance annealer from Niehoff ▲ ▲

and consistent wire annealing quality. Freely programmable control systems (PLCs) and standardised interfaces make the drawing and annealing line easy to combine with many spooling and coiling systems. Niehoff has developed take-up and spooling systems for the whole range of wire drawing applications. As a result of the design and control characteristics, the wires drawn on an MM 85 drawing line have similar properties with very fine tolerances along their entire length, and operating conditions are characterised by con- siderably reduced down times. Based on 7,000 hours per year of operation and 80% utilisation, wire production outputs of up to 31,000 t/a for copper wire, and 18,000 t/a for aluminium wire, are possible. Maschinenfabrik Niehoff GmbH & Co KG – Germany provide the flexibility to manufacture a variety of products. The colouring line consists of a large capacity spool payoff, a dancer for payoff speed control and a coating station, followed by a series of high powered UV lamps below the coater. The precision capstan is located below the UV lamps. The fibre passes through the dancer and tension balancer, which reduces loops that can cause OTDR steps, before being precisely wound onto a large capacity traversing take-up spool. Optional ring marking and a range of payoff and take-up sizes are available. Fax : +49 9122 977 155 Email : info@niehoff.de Website : www.niehoff.de

The MM 85 rod breakdown machine was developed by Niehoff to simultaneously draw two copper, aluminium or alloy wires to finished diameters of 1mm–5mm at production speeds up to 38m/second. It includes a quick-change drawing die system, a fully-immersed drawing basin with reliable separation of drawing emulsion and gear oil via a mechanical seal, and a touch screen-based user interface and fault display. MM 85 can be combined with the two-wire version of an R 501 or an RA 501 continuous resistance annealer. The R 501 annealer was designed for copper wire, while the RA 501 annealer is adapted to the requirements of aluminium and aluminium alloy wires. Both annealers are designed for energy efficient operation. Wires exiting the annealer are completely dry. The entire wire path inside the RA 501 aluminium annealer is covered with protective gas to prevent oxidation of the wire surface. A digital annealing voltage controller ensures repeatable Nextrom has developed a high-speed, optical fibre colouring line to improve productivity and flexibility for manufacturers. The development concentrated upon the design of key line components to achieve colouring speeds up to 3,000m per minute. A robust mechanical and electrical design, combined with optimised tooling, an improved UV lamp system, UV monitoring instrumentation and increased spool sizes, provides the capability to produce longer fibre lengths with faster set-up. The result is described as a significant productivity improvement. Previous developments of UV up- coating and ring marking were incorporated into the new design to

DECALUB 31, avenue de Condé 77500 CHELLES, FRANCE Fax: +33 1 60 20 20 21 E-mail: info@decalub.com Website: www.decalub.com

clean wire after drawing

Advanced colouring system OFC 52i

candor

can do wire equipment

Electrolytic plating ◆ Candojet hot water cleaning ◆ Electrolytic & Ultrasonic ◆ degreasing Welding wire cleaning and ◆ copper coating Pickling & phosphating ◆

Nextrom Oy – Finland Fax : +358 9 5025 3003 Email : info@nextrom.com Website : www.nextrom.com

CANDOR Sweden AB Tel: +46 11 21 75 00 Email: info@candorsweden.com Fax: +46 11 12 63 12 Website: www.candorsweden.com

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EuroWire – November 2009