Productivity increase of an AWS 70S-6 steel electrodes wire drawing plant

Abstract

This work is the contribution of two industries: the first, a steel company that fabricates the wire and the
second, which fabricates electrodes for welding. These electrodes, under the standard AWS 70S-6, are
fabricated in a continuous process consisting of two stages: dry drawing, with nine dies applying reductions
from 6 up to 1.73 mm; the second stage is a wet drawing, with ten dies, from 1.73 up to 0.8 mm, without
heat treatment between both stages. The goal of the present work is to increase the production of the
plant, from 600 ton/month up to 1,000 ton/month, by means a study of the mechanical and metallurgical
variables of the process. The main reason for low productivity is the fracture of the wire during the wing
process, specifically during the wet drawing stage. From this, the hypothesis of the work is that a decrease in the fracture of the wire during the wet drawing stage, it will be possible
to increase the productivity of the plant, modifying the reduction rates during dry drawing, decreasing
the drawing stresses and obtaining a softer dry drawn wire (lower yield stress). Lower |stresses must
decrease the fracture of wires and then, increase the productivity. From the results obtained in this work,
an industrial proposal was made, after which, a decrease of 45% in the fracture of wires was measured
and a decrease in the consumption of dies of 50% was obtained.