Wire Drawing

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 wiretempers 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