WCA May 2010

and

Lubricant viscosity control to optimise wire drawing

The acid-free DCCD (dry cleaning, coating and drawing) process incorporates lubricant viscosity control. This enables demanding wire qualities to be drawn in an economical way, at the highest speed, replacing conventional rod preparation (chemical cleaning, rinsing, wet pre-coating and drying) in all direct drawing applications from rod to wire, including 0.85- 0.88%C mechanically descaled bare rod, without pre-coating chemicals. The result is lower cost, improved wire quality and environmental benefits.

The critical aspects of lubrication, friction and wear, part of the complex wire drawing mechanism, are greatly simplified and some, such as wire breaks, surface damage and excessive generation of metallic fines, are virtually eliminated. Instantaneous rod dry coating, operating with no speed limit and at zero energy consumption (self-generated by the LVC/ PDH unit), enables an automatic control of crucial variables, including liquefied lubricant thermal stability, a vital parameter that prevents metal-to-metal contact at the wire-die interface. This allows high drawing speed and wear performance of 0.1–0.3 micron per ton of wire drawn. Full film consistent coatings are achieved in a range from strongly adherent hard multi-coat layer for high-tensile spring wire or PC strand wire, to an ultra thin nano-coat water-soluble film for plating wire. Benefiting from the recent development in rod dry preparation and wire lubrication mode, the DCCD process provides reliability and potential for steel wire production. Rod cleaning and wire drawing by DCCD process ❍ ❍

Decalub – France Fax : +33 1 60 20 20 21

Email : info@decalub.com

Website : www.decalub.com

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Wire & Cable ASIA – May/June 2010