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Wirewear® Coating Produces Higher Quality Wire and Increases Draw Block Life at Harrison Alloy !!!

By Tim Leicht, Plant Manager - A&A Company, Inc.

Wire drawing is typically a very fast process with production rates as high as 5000 feet per minute. Each pass through a wire drawing die typically reduces the wire size from 10-15%. The pressure on the die coupled with the high speed that the wire moves produces large amounts of heat due to friction. Until recently the only practical solution for lowering wire drawing friction to reduce production cost has been to reduce wire resistance by the use of special lubricants between the moving wire, and the dies, and the wire drawinging block to slow down the machine.

The A & A Company, Inc. of South Plainfield, New Jersey has been experimenting since 1995, on friction lowering techniques by coating wire drawing capstans with a unique low friction, non-sticking, abrasion resistant mixture along with a delivery process that they have trademarked WIREWEAR® Coating.

In the past years the company has perfected this mixture and process and accumulated physical data showing a substantial improvement in the manufacture of both ferrous and non-ferrous wire for sizes ranging from .031 to .375. This "trade secret" mixture protected by the Economic Espionage Act of 1996, is a plasma spray technique known only to three key A&A employees.

Capstans and blocks sent to A&A's shop are cleaned and repaired. Then the mixture is applied to the working surfaces of either new or used wire drawing blocks and capstans carefully controlling size, taper and radius. They are then returned to the manufacturer, where they are and re-installed into the wire drawing machines.

Stewart Brunhouse, Jr. president of A&A Company Inc. has stated, "The WIREWEAR® COATING process when combined with proper lubrication of the drawing capstans result in tangible cost saving advantages over the use of other coatings. These advantages include:

1 - Increasing capstan and block life.
2 - Reduced surface temperature on the capstan and on the wire.
3 - Polished capstan improving drawability without center coil marking.
4 - Reduced power requirements due to reduced system friction
5 - Coating that is crack virtually crack free.

These advantages can be documented in a laboratory with instrumentation that measures the friction resistance by reading the required drawing force under similiar conditions using the same lubricant and comparing various capstan coatings. However a more realistic approach has been observed on the production floor under actual "manufacturing runs."

In July of 1996, Bill Burr, Maintenance Superintendent of Harrison Alloys a Harrison, N.J. manufacturer of thermocouple alloys, resistance heating alloys, precision resistance alloys, controlled expansion alloys, spark plug alloys, mechanical and belt alloys, mechanical alloys and high nickel alloys came to A&A with a problem.

 

Mr. Burr had a set of badly worn worn thermocouple wire drawing blocks needing repair. After carefully measuring the blocks, the A&A technical team developed a material to increase the diameter. Using this new material the shop brought the blocks back to running standards by increasing the block diameter and re-constructing the correct taper and radius. Working with Harrison Alloys, A&A has experimented with many different materials while attempting to improve the quality of wire and the life of the capstans under production conditions.

Finally in August of 1996 A&A developed a superior coating that worked better than any previously used. Harrison Alloys has been using WIREWEAR® Coating on their blocks since then. Bill Burr noted a collateral benefit when using the rebuilt A&A blocks, "After our coated capstans are run for several weeks in production they became highly polished. This still further increases the quality of our wire with less friction on the block. Wire climbs up the block freely with very little crossover and is easily removed from the finished block. I have a real problem with our operators whenever I try to pull one of the A&A blocks they just don't want to let them go".

A & A COMPANY, INC. can provide wear resistant coatings to improve the performance of other components in wire processing lines. These include capstans, blocks, sheaves, pulleys, rollers, rings, guides and annealer pulleys. Whether you are an equipment OEM or wire processor, you should be using WIREWEAR® Coatings. In addition to WIREWEAR® Coatings, the A&A Company, Inc technical team is prepared to provide custom coatings for any situation requiring resistance to wear, abrasion, erosion, corrosion, repair worn parts, or repair mis-machined components. A&A Company has more than 50 years of experience supplying coatings to the printing, packaging, semi-conductor, power generation and many other industries.

 


 

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    WIRE PRODUCTION at Harrison Alloy Plant, NJ


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    WIRE DRAWING BLOCK with groves and scored surfaces due to excessive wear


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    WIRE DRAWING BLOCK refinished with Wirewear Coating that resists wear


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    HARRISON ALLOY WORKER easily removes wire from Drawing Block


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    SIX-STAGE WIRE DRAWING MACHINE in operation


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    Stew Brunhouse, A&A COMPANY (left) discussing Wirewear Application with Bill Burr, Maintenance Superintendent of Harrison Alloy