FORM - 2

THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 OF 1970)
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10)
TITLE OF INVENTION
"Wire Manufacturing System and a Process Thereof
(a) Arihant Steel and Metal Wires limited (b) having administrative office at Gat No 1264, Koregaon Bhima Vadu road; Vadu Budruk, off Pune Ahmednagar Road, Taluka Shirur, Pune 412216
The following specification particularly describes the nature of the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.

Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a wire manufacturing system and a process thereof.
Background of the Invention
There are many classes of finished wires including nail wire, telegraph and telephone wire, fence and rope wire, welding wire, spring and musical wire and hundreds of miscellaneous and specialty wires. Almost all of these products are made from the wire rods in the coil form. To meet the specifications, these wires require different methods of coatings, heating, tempering, drawing, and finishing.
Processes used in wire drawing include wet and dry drawing. Conventionally, the coils, known as wire-rods are used as a starting material; they are fed to wire drawing frame wherein a sharpened / pointed end is inserted through the die block hole and attached to the draw reels of the draw block. The wire rod is pulled through the die blocks reducing its size and extending its length. The reduction in size is known as draft and is expressed in percentage of original rod size. This draft or reduction in size is usually 10% to 45% per drawing. Fine wires require several intermediate drawings to reach the desired finish gauge / size wherein size is expressed as gauge many a times.
Wire manufacturing processes / methods are reported in the literature. They are as follows:
US Patent application number 20050132867 discloses steel wire used for stringed and method of manufacturing the same. A rolled steel material is subjected to wire drawing and patenting followed by removal of decarburized layers on the surface of the wire.
United States Application 20030168136 discloses a steel wire manufacturing method. It comprises of: shaving a steel wire rod of pearlite structure containing 0.7-1.0 mass % of C and 0.5-1.5 mass % of Si, patenting the shaved wire rod, and drawing the patented wire rod.
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Solid wire and cored wires are an integral part of a Gas Metal Arc Welding process, also referred as Metal Inert Gas welding. Solid wires are homogeneous throughout the diameter and cored wires are filled with flux. Welding wires are manufactured primarily from the rods by method of reduction of diameter in sequence from raw wire of higher diameter to the welding wire. The rods are wire drawn through various stages to reduce the cross section.
European Patent EP0914899 discloses a method for production of welding wires of small diameters such as solid wires and cored wires which have rough surfaces necessary to retain lubricants. The method comprises of steps such as dry hole die drawing with application of powder lubricants, roller dies drawing by such as cassette-type roller dies, and wet hole die drawing, at least in a part of a sequence of wire drawing processes.
European Patent EP0858860 discloses a process for manufacturing flux-cored welding wire for low-hydrogen welding by dehydrogenating a wire prepared by packing flux in a metal tube by heating at a high temperature.
United States Application 20060018780 discloses a method for making wire particularly suited for making welding and hard facing wires of super alloy materials used for manufacturing or repairing parts of aerospace structures, such as gas turbine aircraft engines. The method comprises of forming a "green"-state wire from a feedstock comprising a metal powder and a binder. The feed stock is extruded through a die. The green-state wire is then sintered to effect consolidation and densification of the wire.
The analysis of the prior art reveal drawbacks such as:
• The raw material that is the wire-rod has to be manufactured separately. This process of manufacture is energy and capital intensive that needs blast furnace, iron ore etc. This reflects in the cost of the raw material.
• The raw material of the wire needs to be a solid wire of higher diameter which is subsequently reduced in diameter by a wire drawing process in
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various stages. There is a limitation on diameter of the wire in stages, therefore if the wire diameter is small enough; it has to be drawn from number of stages. Generally initial diameter of the wire-rod is of the order of 5.5 mm which is the lowest available size in the market and it is reduced to around 0.8 to 3 mm. If the reduction ratio is more, naturally number of stages also increases.
Necessity has constantly been felt to develop a system and process of wire manufacture obviating the use of a wire-rod as a raw material and substantially reducing the number of drawing stages.
Summary of the Invention
The main object of the invention is to provide cost effective system and process of wire manufacture obviating the use of wire-rod as a raw material and substantially reduce number of wire drawing stages.
Another object of the invention is to utilize raw material that is derived from other product and not manufactured separately.
Yet another object of the invention is to reduce cycle time for production of the wires.
Thus in accordance with the invention, the system comprises of:
flattening means; cutting / shearing means for raw material wherein the raw
material is a lamina with length many times width, in the form of a strip instead of
a wire-rod;
a rolling means comprising
a pair of rotatable cylinders provided with profiled circumferential groove/s wherein
first cylinder is distanced substantially parallel to the second cylinder such that
the said strip passes through the said profiled groove/s of the said cylinders,
means for exerting pressure on the said cylinders so as to vary distance between
them;
driving means for the said cylinders;
wire drawing means;
optional annealing means;
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wherein the said lamina is cut to the desired width in the cutting/ shearing means, flattened in the said flattening means and fed to the said rolling means wherein it is converted into cylindrical form and further drawn in the wire drawing means.
Description of the Invention
Features and advantages of the invention will become apparent in the following detailed description and preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Schematic of the wire manufacturing system Sheet 1
Process flow diagram of the wire manufacture Sheet 2
The schematic of the system is shown in Figure 1. Lamina 1 having width W and length L (represented as 101 wherein it is understood that length L is many times width W) in the form of a long narrow strip, herein afterwards called as strip is fed in the flattening and cutting means 2 comprising roller set. Each of the said set has two rollers rotating in reverse direction with respect to each other wherein some of the rollers in the set perform strip cutting function to desired width (represented as 102). The said strip after cutting and flattening operation is fed to the strip rolling system 3. Front (3f) and side view (3s) of this system are illustrated in the Figure 1. This system comprises a pair of rotatable rollers/ cylinders 5, 6, distanced substantially parallel from each other and provided with grooves indicated as 7 and 8 in the side view. The rollers are disposed in such a way that the said grooves of each of them are in front of each other. These are profiled grooves. Part of the said strip (width wise) fits in the groove of the first roller and other part fits in the groove of the other roller. Pressure is applied to the rollers in the direction shown by arrows 9, 10 so that the distance between the rollers reduces and the said strip is deformed in the said rollers into the cylindrical form 11 (represented as 103). In the wire drawing means 12, this solid cylinder is wire drawn to the desired diameter wire 13.
The process flow chart is illustrated in Figure 2. Thus the raw material is a long narrow lamina in the form of a strip. The said strip is cut to the desired width and
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then flattening operation is carried out. Further, the flattened strip is formed/ rolled in cylindrical form that is a wire. Further, optional annealing is carried out and the said cylindrical form (wire) generated from the strip is drawn to the desired diameter. It is to be noted that though the description of the invention is elaborated with respect preferred embodiment of strip as a raw material, the present invention is not limited to only strip wherein instead of strip one may use square, rectangular, hexagonal rods but not limited to it, and pass though the rotatable cylinders provided with appropriate profiled grooves according to the input material cross section.
It is to be underlined that the present invention facilitates selection of appropriate width of the said strip based on the desired final diameter of the wire. This strip is formed so as to get the solid cylinder of appropriate diameter just sufficient for wire drawing. This results in saving number of stages that are other wise required in the conventional process because the initial rod size is fixed. Thus suppose 0.6 mm is the desired diameter of the final wire, it has to be drawn from a wire-rod of diameter around 5.5 mm, lowest possible diameter available, in the conventional process. Since this diameter reduction can not be achieved in one stage, number of stages and an intermediate annealing process is needed in the conventional process. Using the system and process of present invention one has direct control on the initial diameter of the wire to be drawn because it is generated using strip of user defined width. Thus, appropriate selection of width of the strip ultimately reduces number of stages in the wire drawing process. Moreover cleaning operation is not required in the present invention process as against conventional process because it is taken care inherently in the rolling process of the strips.
In one of the embodiments the said strip is a by-product of coil slitting operation of hot rolled and cold rolled steel coils.
In another embodiment cooling means is provided at the rotatable rollers to extract heat generated during conversion of the said slit into cylindrical form.
In another embodiment the said strip is of any grade of metal, alloy etc.
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In yet another embodiment raw material is not limited to strip but is selected from any other cross section such as square rods, hexagonal rods etc.
In yet another embodiment a means is provided to descale the wire coming out of the said roatable cylinders.
In yet another embodiment pressure is applied on the said rotatable cylinders hydraulically.
In yet another embodiment pressure applied on the said rotatable cylinders mechanically.
In yet another embodiment pressure applied on the said rotatable cylinders electrically.
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We claim:
1. A wire manufacturing system comprising:
flattening means; cutting / shearing means for raw material wherein the
raw material is a lamina with length many times width, in the form of a strip
instead of a wire-rod;
a rolling means comprising
a pair of rotatable cylinders provided with profiled circumferential groove/s
wherein first cylinder is distanced substantially parallel to the second
cylinder such that the said strip passes through the said profiled groove/s of
the said cylinders;
means for exerting pressure on the said cylinders so as to vary distance
between them;
driving means for the said cylinders;
wire drawing means;
optional annealing means;
wherein the said lamina is cut to the desired width in the cutting / shearing
means, flattened in the said flattening means and fed to the said rolling
means wherein it is converted into solid cylindrical form and further drawn
in the wire drawing means.
2. A wire manufacturing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein a wire is
manufactured in steps of:
optionally cutting / shearing the said strip to desired width in the cutting /
shearing means;
flattening the cut strip in the flattening means;
forming the flattened strip in the said rolling means into solid cylindrical
form;
optionally annealing;
wire drawing.
3. A wire manufacturing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said strip
material is a by-product of coil slitting operation of hot rolled and / or cold
rolled steel coils.
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4. A wire manufacturing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said strip is selected from any metal or alloy.
5. A wire manufacturing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said means for applying pressure on the rotatable cylinders is operated hydraulically, mechanically, electrically or a combination thereof.
6. A wire manufacturing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein a means is provided to descale the wire coming out from the said rotatable cylinder.
7. A wire manufacturing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein cooling means is provided to extract heat generated during rolling of the said raw material through the said rotatable cylinders.
8. A wire manufacturing system wherein the raw material is selected from rods of cross section such as square, rectangular, oval, hexagonal but not limited to it.
Applicant
Date: 2.6|ie|l«>4 6fc
Arihant Steel and metal Wires limited
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a wire manufacturing system and a process thereof. Conventionally, the coils, known as wire-rods are used as a starting material for wire manufacture. Wire-rod has to be manufactured separately. This process is energy and capital intensive that needs blast furnace, iron ore etc. Further, several intermediate wire drawing stages are required for finer diameter wire manufacture. The system of the present invention obviates the use of wire-rod as starting material. The lamina with length many times width is converted to cylindrical form using the system and process of the present invention. The width of the said lamina can be cut according to the desired diameter of the wire, thus obviating number of wire drawing stages as against conventional wire drawing process. The said lamina which is a by-product of coil slitting operation substantially reduces cost as against hot rolled wire-rods used in the conventional process.