WCA March 2007

Wire Drawing Machinery

Wire drawing is one of the most sophisticated processes in the entire field of industrial practice The Devil’s Rope Museum, in McLean, Texas, USA, on Old Route 66 in the Panhandle, bills itself as the largest museum in the world dedicated to the history of barbed wire. Its claim is not disputed by this journal, which is indebted to the museum for supplying the earliest known written reference to wire manufacture: “And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires.” (Exodus, Chapter 39).

Photo credit: Samp SpA

The word ‘plates’ in the ancient text is an eye-opener, even if thin gold plates from three millennia back have no direct connection with the draw plates in series that reduce the cross-section of the product of a modern wire making plant. Wire drawing is one of the most sophisticated processes in the entire field of industrial practice. But in both instances a painstaking procedure is employed to produce a valuable commodity. The methods of both sets of technicians are carefully noted for future reference. Most important of all, the world – of yesterday and today – is the richer for their efforts. That will be true as well for the world of tomorrow. The wire drawing specialists that appear in the pages that follow are in that tradition. Evolution is the nature of their business, as demonstrated by the machinery featured. What was state-of-the-art last year has in fact been improved upon. The editors of Wire & Cable ASIA take keen satisfaction in reviewing these superb products and services.

performance of the capstan and die cooling technology, the lack of wire path deviation, better back pull control, the complete lack of wire torsion, and the use of the most modern inverters and motors, the MegaLogos has established a new class of drawing machine providing optimal quality and performance. Inherent to the horizontal capstan design machine are greatly reduced down time and maintenance. The use of the most modern design and components reduces power consumption and with the easy maintenance allowed by the horizontal design, the MegaLogos again proves itself as the optimal machine design across a broad range of products.

Maximising performance From their inception the companies RTM (Redaelli Tecna Meccanica), Italy, and OTT, France, became synonymous with high carbon steel wire transformation machinery. Since 1999, these two wire and rope machinery companies have become the wire machinery division of Continuus-Properzi SpA. A year later, Continuus-Properzi SpA introduced the new generation of the dry drawing machine the ‘MegaLogos’. The primary concept was for the design to be ergonomic to make operation easier and maximise performance. Thanks to the high

The MegaLogos 1270 capstan in detail

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The EVO 3 water-cooling of the capstans is the result of many years of successful and proven experience in the cooling of hot casting lines and assures maximum wire quality and production speed with reduced water consumption. From Redaelli and OTT’s many years of experience and the continuous research into the use of modern and dependable technology, through Continuus-Properzi, the wire machinery division has proved to have a specific strength in PC wire and PC strand machinery. Continuus-Properzi SpA – Italy Fax : +39 0298 10358 Email : sales@properzi.it Website : www.properzi.com

A general view of the MegaLogos

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Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2007