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EuroWire – November 2008
lubricants (dry & wet)
EuroWire – Nov mber 2008
Lubricants
Feature
T
he major challenge for lubrication in wire making has always been
to facilitate the longest possible die life even as ever-higher drawing
speeds are achieved. The use of tungsten carbide and diamond dies
delivered phenomenal increases in productivity, but greatly compounded
the friction and wear concerns that posed a challenge even in the era of
chilled iron and steel dies. Every advance in wire making practice has been
accompanied by improvements in drawing lubricants – or the advance
would not have taken place.
Future developments will depend on improving lubricants still further; on propounding
the best film barriers for new-generation metals, on balancing the demands of
extreme pressure and extreme temperature and on satisfying increasingly stringent
environmental and disposal requirements.
At the same time, these harder-working lubricants will themselves demand more care
all the time. A patented apparatus for cleaning a lubricant for dry-type wire drawing
is a marvel of driving motors, support plates and rotating and cleaning members.
Someday, it will have to be an even greater marvel.
Fortunately, on past performance, wire makers may be confident that developments
in lubrication engineering are proceeding in parallel with those in wire making.
The products and services on review in this section of EuroWire provide ample evidence
of this beneficial reciprocity.
Photo courtesy of
Lubrimetal
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