Wire Drawing

Wire drawing is a metal-reducing process in which a wire rod is pulled or drawn through a single die or a series of continuous dies, thereby reducing its diameter.  Because the volume of the wire remains the same, the length of the wire changes according to its new diameter. Various wire tempers can be produced by a series of drawing and annealing operations. (Temper refers to toughness.)

Process Characteristics

Pulls a wire rod through a die, reducing its diameter
Increases the length of the wire as its diameter decreases
May use several dies in succession (tandem) for small diameter wire
Improves material properties due to cold working
Wire temper can be controlled by swaging, drawing, and annealing treatments

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Information provided is from Manufacturing Processes Reference Guide by Robert H. Todd, Dell K. Allen, and Leo Alting.--1st ed. Published by Industrial Press Inc., 1994.