WCA MAY 2015

Technology news

Flexible and adaptable

FOR many wire and cable products, such as power cable conductors, production starts with the rod wire drawing process. As the products have to meet continuously increasing demands, wire and cable manufacturers need machinery which enables an energy, raw materials and cost-effective manufacturing process. Furthermore, the machines must be flexibly adaptable to new production requirements. The machinery designed for wire drawing and wire processing developed and built by Maschinenfabrik Niehoff meets all these requirements. Niehoff is one of the pioneers of rod breakdown technology with 60 years of experience. The most recent innovation in the field of its MSM rod breakdown technology initially launched in 1998 is the completely new developed type MSM 86 rod breakdown machine with electronic controls. The machine, which was introduced at an in-house exhibition in Spring 2014, is designed for wires made of copper, aluminium, aluminium alloys, copper alloys and special materials. Being of modular design, the MSM 86 offers users more options in terms of process technology. The controls allow drawing and annealing with minimised slip, resulting in high quality wire surfaces, low energy consumption and a long operational life of the drawing tools. It is also possible to work with different wire elongations for each draft according to the wires’ material, properties and shapes. The optimised wire path, innovative high pressure cooling of the drawing die holders and the optimised reliable fully submerged drawing basin for lubricant cooling all contribute to the high wire surface quality. Design changes have been made to reduce maintenance requirements and improve access to the different operation and maintenance areas. A quick drawing die change system reduces downtime when changing the machine setup for different dimensions and enhances productivity. The drawing machine also features a highly reliable drawing emulsion and gear oil separation system using mechanical sealing. Capstans which

are not in use are switched off. The result is an ergonomic, user-friendly system which is easy to maintain and requires less frequent maintenance. The MSM 86 rod break down line is operated by means of the new NMI (Niehoff Machine Interface) colour touch-screen display with colour user interface and simplified navigation structure. The NMI includes the display of information such as production parameters, maintenance instructions, diagnostic functions, trends charting, recipe data management, and message archive. The NMI requires only minimum training for application and enables an easy intuitive and quick operation. All in all, the total energy consumption of the new MSM 86 machines is up to ten per cent lower than of its predecessor model MSM 85 and 20 per cent lower than of conventional rod breakdown machines. The MSM 86 is designed to be combined with the new R 502 continuous resistance annealer. With an annealing power of 600kW, the R 502 is the most powerful annealer made by Niehoff to date. Power consumption is reduced by 20 per cent compared to state-of-the-art DC annealers due to the newly developed voltage control system NAC (Niehoff Annealing Controller) and the AC annealing principle. Homogeneous wire annealing is guaranteed from zero to full speed operation. The MSM 86 + R 502 drawing line can be combined with several new spooling systems. Maschinenfabrik Niehoff GmbH – Germany Website : www.niehoff-gmbh.info ❍ Homogeneous wire annealing is guaranteed from zero to full speed operation

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Wire & Cable ASIA – May/June 2015

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